Defenders of Evodusai
by Oshyn Kuttyomi
Summary: After waking up in the middle of the forest, a pokemon breeder who loses everything finds himself transformed into a female charmander. Trying to figure out the cause of his/her change, he joins up with an organization whose sole purpose is to protect the lands of Evodusai.
1. Chapter 1

With eyes still tightly shut, the first thing that I could sense was the freshness of nature's cool air toying with my nostrils. Funny, I don't remember heading out into the wilderness but the peace and serenity of this moment kept me at ease. A gentle breeze blew across my bare body and sent a few shivers down my skin.

"Why was I naked," I wondered to myself before letting the thought silently drift away. I can't remember when I've felt this relaxed. Coming from a world where only the strong and cunning survived, I did all I could to make my living decent. It was all work and no play for five years until recently. After getting stabbed in the back by my former friends, I soon found myself left with nothing except for wasted time. The sound of leaves dancing softly upon their branches eased my mind away from the coldness of both the weather and my thoughts as I began to slowly crack my eyes open. Darkening gray clouds flowing along with the winds above greeted me before I noticed something orange poking out from underneath my eyes. Reaching towards said object that was plastered upon my face, I jabbed at it with a finger only to find myself wincing in pain. The shock lifted me off of my back as I sat up to grasp my now throbbing face. Seeing my hand only made my eyes widen as I noticed that it was now orange as well. All I could do at that moment was cringe before looking downwards towards the rest of my body. My mind was not prepared for the information that my eyes had sent to it.

Bright orange scales covered my shortened arms and legs while my scaly chest and pudgy belly were colored gold. Where my proud member had once laid tucked between my legs was replaced with a slit that just made me uncomfortable. Looking behind me I found a thick lizard-like tail attached to me that drew my eye's focus towards its tip. I just stared at the tip in silence, feeling my eyes starting to water up. A large glowing flame had found its way onto my new appendage and even though I couldn't feel any kind of pain, the beating of my heart had gone into overdrive. My body began to move on its own accord since panic had just consumed almost all of my rational. Finding myself standing up on my feet, I took a couple of shaky steps forward before breaking out into a sprint. My stubby arms flailed wildly in the air before all of the terror that built up inside me was transformed into an ear-piercing screech. I ran for an unknown amount of time like this until I could no longer feel the ground with my feet. Returning to my senses, all I could see was a huge body of water before a sudden explosion of darkness and chills enveloped me.

I slowly regained my consciousness after experiencing that overload of emotions. After taking that unexpected dive into the lake, I cursed at myself for not learning how to swim in the first place. Placing blame towards something normally helps reinforce my ego, but targeting myself was a horrible mistake. Once that happened, I found that I couldn't stop attacking. All the pushing and prodding that I forced onto my already fragile mind triggered something and an uncontrollable rage began to build up inside me. It flowed around throughout my body, almost as if it had somehow gained a life of its own. Before I even knew what had happened, memories of my childhood that I had locked away so long ago resurfaced from their forgotten prison. All that I could do was stare as the events from the past replayed themselves within my mind. Watching the days of my youth made me envious of my former self and I wanted to reach out and place myself back into those carefree days. These feelings only lasted for a brief moment as I knew that at the end of this nostalgic journey would come the start of my suffering.

"No, I can't go through something like that again," I mumbled to myself as I tried to stop these flashbacks. Before I could recall all the horrific details of that moment, my childhood memories just shattered as the built up rage inside me caused me to lurch myself upwards. I could feel my throat burning with an itchy sensation as water was expelled from my lungs, covering part of the ground with a sickening splash. A thumping sensation inside my head coupled with an annoying ringing resonating in my ears caused me to grasp my head in agony. Staring out into the space in front of me, I couldn't make anything out.

"What happened to me," I grumbled out before wiping away the grogginess from my eyes. The faint noise of someone's voice can barely be heard over the ringing. Rubbing my eyes seemed to help since they regained their focus just as I looked towards the source of the voice. I was completely stunned by what I saw. To my left, a totodile was staring at me with a concerned look upon its face while on my right was a glaring zangoose.

"Hey Truce, I think she'll be alright," the totodile turned as she whispered towards her buddy. By now, both my sight and hearing had returned to normal. Looking over these two, I noticed that these pokemon were taller then me, which was- wait, what did she just say about me? But more importantly, how did I just understand her? "You will be alright, right?" she asked me with a bit of doubt lingering in her voice. I just stared into her amber colored eyes with disbelief.

"I can understand you?" I questioned bluntly.

Her face scrunched up into a puzzling look before saying, "Of course we can understand each other. I mean, we are all pokemon." That last sentence confirmed all of my fears. The orange and yellow scales and that thick lizard-like tail with the flaming tip all pointed to me being one thing: a charmander.

"Here, take this," Truce stated sternly before handing me a bluish berry that looked to be the size of an orange.

Turning the fruit around in my paws, my face heated up as I felt my stomach rumble a bit. "I can't take this," I cried while trying to offer it back.

Using his claws, he pushed the fruit back and gave me a look that filled me with fear. "Eat it," the zangoose stated sternly. "It should restore both your stamina and vitality. After what you just went through, I think you need it the more then we do." Hesitantly, I got the fruit up close to my maw, sniffed it a little, and gave it a test bite. A few seconds later, the berry was no more. Standing up, I wobbled as I tried to find my center of balance. A blue paw grasped my shoulder gently.

"Lemme help you," the totodile smiled. I nodded and leaned on her for a bit.

"So who are you guys?" I asked her while taking a few shaky steps.

"Oh! My name's Liru and that's Truce," she said pointing at the zangoose. "Right now he's teaching me the basics of-." A fear filled screech pierced the air, drawing our attention towards the general direction of its source.

"Let's go Liru," Truce shouted.

Liru nodded and turned to leave. "Sorry, but I gotta go. Be safe, okay?" Another cry echoed out into the open, causing the two to start running. I watched as their bodies disappeared into the thick foliage of the forest. Walking up to the lake, I looked into the waters to see my new self staring back at me with bright green eyes. Looking back at the bush that they went in to, I felt something in my gut that told me to follow them. Without questioning it, I ran off after them. Running through the forest clearing upon all fours was just...exhilarating. The scent of freshly crushed grass upon my paws while taking in the rush of air blowing across my face all felt so natural. Eyes dilating, I knew that my senses were much sharper due to my body's new instincts. Reaching the bush where Truce and Liru disappeared into, I dove over the tangled mess of leaves and branches before landing on top of something soft and warm. A cry of shock escaped from underneath me.

"What the- GET OFF!" they screamed while landing a painful blow onto my chest. Winded from the attack, I clutched the area that was hit and rolled off of them with a grunt. Looking up I saw a feisty feline with black and brown fur standing close by, brushing the dust off of himself and giving me a threatening glare. Staggering onto my feet, the lion-like pokemon tensed up and jumped back, giving off a growl that was flat out adorable. Moving my arms up, I tried my best to look non-threatening.

"Woah, wait a minute," I cried out defensively. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to fall on top of you. I heard a scream coming from the area and thought somebody might need some help." My words seemed to work since his muscles started to relax a little.

He looked me up and down, gave me a nod, and grumbled, "Alright, you don't look like you're with them. Come with me." Before I could ask who he was referring to, a primal roar blasted out from behind us. "Hurry, before they catch up to us," he whispered before taking off. Following closely behind, I noticed him taking multiple glances behind him.

"What are we running from," I huffed, out of breath. He gave me a puzzling look and stopped for me to catch my breath.

"Don't you know where we are?" he asked. When I shook my head, he groaned and placed a paw on his face. "This is Genko Forest, one of many mystery dungeons spread across the land." Upon seeing my clueless face, the lion cub sighed and muttered something under his breath before continuing. "Mystery dungeons are dangerous because these areas are always changing. The pokemon who live in these areas are negatively affected by this, becoming hostile at every trespasser intruding upon their territory. I was just running away from some of these feral beings until you came along and tackled me from out of nowhere."

"Well if you already knew it was dangerous here," I stated with my arms crossed, "Why'd you come here in the first place? From the way you were talking, it's obvious that you're not from around these parts." Before I could get an answer from him, a large bull broke through the bushes and charged at us. I almost got hit trying to jump out of its way.

"Dang it, I can't believe that Tauros managed to find me," the lion shouted. "Hey char girl, how good can you fight?" Dodging another charge from the frenzied bull, I couldn't give an answer. Adrenaline was pumping through my veins as my pupils dilated again. This situation became a fight for a survival when that bull prepared to charge at me yet again. Something clicked inside my head, telling me that I can beat this. A small ball of flame coming from the lion pelted the side of the bull's hide, distracting him away from my own counter-attack. Digging down deep into my gut, I could feel the raw potential just waiting to well up and explode.

The Tauros shook the blow off and turned towards the source of the flame, making a face that could scare even ghost pokemon away. The once confident lion was now physically frozen in fear from seeing such a terrifying expression. Nose flaring into a couple of snorts, the bull roared with rage and charged, only this time there was a dangerous glint coming from its horns. I ran at the frozen feline and pushed him out of the way. Turning to face the out of control bull, I released everything I had within me and felt a huge funnel of flame erupt from my maw. Seeing and feeling such an intense bout of flame was both amazing and frightening at the same time. When the fire started to die down, I was left shaking a bit with a couple tears flowing down my cheeks. Falling onto my knees, I looked over to find the Tauros knocked out against a tree with scorch marks all over their body.

"Jeez, that was a nice shot," the lion gasped. Padding over to me, he placed a paw on my shoulder and gave me a few victory pats. Some rustling of the leaves behind us startled us and we jumped back to prepare for more enemies. The sight of a zangoose slashing through the brush was pure relief. Seeing him shifting his eyes between me, the lion, and the Tauros made me a bit nervous, but that soon dissolved when he gave a toothy grin.

"Liru, guess who I just found," Truce turned and shouted. Emerging from the sliced up wilderness came the blue gator followed by a Shinx.

"That Litleo... Isn't that the prince?" gasped Liru. "We've been looking everywhere for you. Don't you know that your parents have been worried sick over your disappearance?" When that Shinx appeared, the fire in the Litleo's eyes burned out. A tiny whimper escaped his throat and his gaze was aimed towards the ground. The Shinx trotted slowly to the depressed cub, giving him a couple of friendly licks across his forehead.

"I'm sorry for dragging you through all this, Lilly," he apologized. "I just wanted to revenge for what they did to you that I sort of lost track of everything."

Truce stepped up and coughed to get the Litleo's attention. "One of our other teams have already apprehended the outlaws that you seek. Let's get the both of you home first before talking any further." Clutching something in his right paw, he held it up into the sky. A beam of blinding light flashed for a couple seconds before dissipating. Where the shinx and litleo once stood was nothing but air.

"Now what should we do about you?" Truce pondered with a smile on his face. "Not only did you save us the trouble of searching for the prince but you've also taken out Rampaging Rydro, a D-ranked outlaw who was only one more crime away from becoming a C-ranked criminal." Judging from the tone of his voice, I shuffled back a bit in defense but was instantly grabbed by the quick moving pokemon. Moving in close to my face, I could smell his putrid breath as he whispered, "Don't you know who we are?" Struggling to escape the zangoose's grip, a flash of blue flickered out of the corner of my eye. Suddenly, Truce yelped out as if he had been struck and with a thud, I was dropped onto my rear.

"Come on Truce, stop messing with her," Liru growled with a tiny bit of blood staining a few of her teeth. Walking over to my sitting form, she extended a paw forward. "Sorry about that," she apologized, "Truce only gets this way when he spots potential."

"Potential?" I asked, grabbing her paw and pulling myself up. Looking over at Truce, I saw him rubbing at the spot where Liru had nipped his arm. "Yeah, for the organization that I'm trying to join," Liru smiled.

"With mystery dungeons springing up everywhere, chaos has been slowly spreading across the lands of Evodusai," interrupted Truce. He appeared to be fine and upon closer inspection, the wound on his arm was barely visible. "Sofeda, the place where I work at, is made up of three core groups: Offensive Superiority, Defensive Defiance, and Intelligence Central. Together, we aim to prevent the spread of disaster by minimizing the overall damage caused by affected inhabitants and destroying the source of the area's distortion. Most of the time, we end up finding and removing these strange dark crystals placed deep within the area." Pointing at Liru, Truce continued with his boring lecture. "Liru over here was our newest recruit. Since Genko Forest is a relatively small area, the higher ups decided that this was the perfect test to determine which group her skills would be perfect for. Based on what I've seen, Liru could join either the recon division of Intelligence Central or the physical force division of Offensive Superiority." A long pause snapped me out from my sleepy daze. Looking around, I found Liru taking a nap while Truce was angrily trying to wake her.

"Okay, that was a bit long and boring," I yawned outright. "Since you wanted to explain all this to me, I assume you wanted to recruit me or something?" Picking the Totodile up and shaking her, Truce turned to me and grinned.

Nudging a shoulder at the burnt up Tauros, he stated, "With firepower like that, you'll be perfect for the special attack division." Liru, angered by the violent wake up, chomped Truce's claw and was quickly released.

"So with the prince secured, we can leave now, right?" Liru impatiently asked. Grasping his claw, the zangoose shook his head.

"There's still one more thing we need to do," he muffled, trying to suppress his agony. "We're in deep enough to find the source of the dungeon. Remember, it's our duty to fix the area by destroying the dark crystals. Liru, take her along and see if you can find it."

Nodding, Liru turned to me and said, "let's go." We searched for a bit until we reached a small clearing that lead into a dead end. At the back, we could see a faint glow radiating from a crystal shard. "That must be the source, Liru whispered. We approached it slowly, unsure about the danger the object might possess.

"It would have been nice if Truce told us about what to expect from this thing instead of all that other boring nonsense," I muttered. Liru gave a tiny giggle, which was a bit unexpected. At this point, we were close enough to grab at it, which I did and crushed it in my paws. Once that happened, I knew we were in for a nasty surprise and it came in the form of a group of three Rhyhorns and a Lairon. Knowing that fire was almost useless in this situation, I cursed under my breath and turned to Liru. "Just listen to me and we'll be fine," I ordered. "Since they all share a weakness with water, you'll have to do the fighting while I tell you what to do." She looked at me with shock, shook her head a bit, and turned to face the enemy.

"Alright, I'm all ears." Two of the Rhyhorns immediately targeted Liru and charged forward in a fury. Noticing a gap between them, I told her to squeeze through it and unleash a few bursts of water into one of their backs. The trick worked like a charm as one of the frenzied Rhyhorns was instantly knocked out. Furious at the loss of their buddy, the Rhyhorn next to the Lairon roared and shot out some shards of earth.

"Liru, jump into the air and fire off another round at the flanked one." Hearing my command, she jumped, but it was a bit too late since a stray piece of rock pelted her on the back of the leg. Wincing, she shook the blow off and followed through with the rest of the order, taking out another baddie. I rushed in to catch the injured gator, placing her down gently on her feet. "How many shots do you have left," I asked to get an idea on how well we're doing.

"I got enough in me for one final attack," Liru huffed with a glint in her eyes. The remaining two pokemon blindly charged towards us, one using the standard horn attack and the other going for a powerful headbutt. "Let's do this," she shouted and together we unleashed a water gun/ember combo that meshed together into one. The sound of a huge thunk bounced off the trees, leaving our foes crumpled in a heap. "Nice...job..." she wheezed. Offering my paw this time, I picked her up and felt her using me for support. With the job done, we started to leave the area. The atmosphere seemed gentler, soothing the minds and calming the bodies of everyone in the entire forest. Hostility itself had vanished. After a few minutes of walking beside her, Liru stopped in her tracks.

"What's your name," she abruptly questioned. I was so taken aback by the tone of her voice when she asked me that I just couldn't find the words to reply with. "The way you acted earlier, it's just, you remind me of someone from long ago. The way your eyes glowed when I first met you on that riverbed and the way it burned when we were fighting, it was like reuniting with a dearly departed friend." At this point, I was just confused.

"I'm sorry," I began, "I don't know what you're talking about. I've never met anyone like you before today and if I did, then I can't remember. Honestly, I'm sure that I was born a human and that today was my first day as a..." I stopped talking. A tear rolled down Liru's cheek as she moved a paw near her mouth.

"Winta?"

"How do you-" I started, but then it all came back to me. All the fractured pieces of that one buried memory resurfaced, bringing along with it a whole range of emotions. It happened five years ago, when I was old enough to become a trainer. Since my family made a living breeding pokemon, I was confident in my abilities to raise one for myself. I was given a freshly laid egg and told to take care of it since the pokemon who laid it had sadly passed away. Twenty one days later, she cracked through the fragile shell and saw me for the first time through her amber colored eyes. We stared at one another, both unsure of the situation presented before us. Taking a step forward, I heard her give a few sniffles before she went off into a full on bawl. Her crying alerted the rest of my family of the newborn's arrival and my siblings came running in out of curiosity. My parents walked into quite a scene that day. Like an overprotective mother, I was clutching the baby tightly in my arms while trying to drive off my younger brothers and sisters. When everything had calmed down, I was left with a sleeping Totodile gurgling in my arms.

From there, it went downhill pretty quickly. A month had past since Liru was hatched. I spent most of those days taking care of her. As a result, she got pretty clingy to me, following me everywhere I went like a duckling chasing after its mom. I didn't mind it much, but I was definitely worried about her safety. Some of the family's breeding pokemon had recently gone missing and I was afraid that whoever took them might target her next. I wanted her to stay inside while I got the chores done around the house, but couldn't bear the sorrow coming from her cries of loneliness. My inexperience with this kind of thing would soon make me regret my decisions for the next couple of years. On a day where storm clouds rolled by in thick sheets of gray, I didn't know that my greatest fear would turn into a reality. Despite the weather looking horrible, I brought Liru outside to get some fresh air. Chores already done, we played together in the windy conditions for a good hour or so. The bellowing of a miltank was a big enough distraction to draw my attention away from my Totodile and I stupidly left her out in the open. Soon enough, her cries of terror instantly made my blood freeze. Turning, I saw three guys escaping with bags slung over their shoulders. Running was all I could do to catch up to the culprits, but all that I could remember was pain. When I came to, I found myself lying charred up on a bed in a pokemon center. The nurse who treated my burns said I was lucky and that I would fully recover in about a month or so. By then, I knew it would be too late to save her from the kidnappers. For five long years, I buried away the feelings of despair and worked to try and forget it all. But the physical pain of having my body pushed to their limits was nothing compared to the scar left on my heart. One night after returning from the store with supplies, I came home to find the area surrounded with rangers. A ranger came up to me and broke open the bad news. Apparently fire had found its way onto the roof of my house and my home as set ablaze. Critical, missing, painless were the only words that I could make out through all of the panic. Watching them dragging out the captured fugitives set me off into a rampage. How could my neighbors, who were once close friends of ours, do such a thing? I shouted and yelled for answers, but only received smug grins and silence as they were taken away. The family business was completely ruined.

Blinking, I stared at the gator in my arms who was sobbing uncontrollably and clutched her deeply into my chest. A couple tears of my own streamed downward, mixing with the tears that were already on the ground. Looking up, a couple of drops fell onto my face.

"I lost you on a day just like today. I'm never going to lose you ever again." The soft pattering of rain gently hitting the ground was soothing to the ear. Still clutching tightly onto my long lost friend, new found instincts told me to seek out shelter. Breaking off from Liru's embrace, I took her paw and led her towards one of the nearby trees. Wiping away a final tear, she gave me a stare that reminded me of her old self.

"What happened to you, momma? You used to be a human, but now you look like an ordinary Charmander." I shook my head in confusion.

"Momma?" I chuckled to her. "I was male before turning into a Charmander."

Liru looked away with a feeling of doubt. "But momma, you fed and took care of me when I was little. Whenever I was alone, you were the only one who showed up when I started crying. Then when you let me follow you around, I saw how hard you worked and it inspired me to become the pokemon that I am today." Moving closer to me, Liru grasped both my paws and held them up to chest height. "No matter what you look like, you'll always be my mommy." I couldn't say anything to her. The way her eyes glowed with sincerity as she talked just melted my heart. I accepted her words and grinned with a sense of maternal pride. A cough from above ruined the moment between us.

"Sorry for intruding," an uncomfortable Truce said as he hung upside down from a tree while rubbing the back of his neck nervously. Liru, turning purple out of embarrassment, instantly dropped my paws and jumped at the Zangoose. Truce was able to see her coming and managed to dodge her attack by using his powerful legs to pull himself up.

"Whoa, calm down! I said I was sorry," he huffed from the treetops.

Liru stomped the ground for a bit to let out her rage. "Promise me that you won't tell anyone back at headquarters," she screamed out.

"I promise," Truce said while dropping to the ground. After brushing some stray leaves off his fur, he walked over to Liru and patted her on the back. "Speaking of headquarters, we gotta start heading back," he said while winking at the Totodile."Can you go and get our packs? I kinda left them back in the forest clearing." Liru grumbled out something profane and left to gather their things. Turning to me with a serious look, Truce got in real close and whispered into my ear hole. "Char girl, I won't force you to come with us but we could really use someone with your abilities. I've seen the way you took control of that fight after breaking the crystal and I gotta say that it was impressive. Also," he nudged a shoulder towards the direction that Liru went, "you two seem pretty close. Truth is, that girl needs some help with her anger issues and you're the only one that can potentially fix them. After meeting up with you, she's shown me a side of her that I didn't even know existed." A few flags were raised after sensing something wrong in the tone of his voice.

"Look, you don't have to use your honeyed words to lure me in," I said as I looked at him suspiciously. "I was already going to join so that I can help out my buddy and see if I can find out anything about myself along the way."

Truce rubbed his maw in disappointment. "Feisty. I can see where Liru gets her attitude from."

Hurrying back with bags hanging from her tail, Liru returned with something in her hand. "Truce, you have to be more careful with this thing." I walked up to her to get a closer look at the object. It was a flat golden piece of metal that was slightly bigger then the size of her paw and shaped like an eye. There was a green jewel encrusted in its center that glowed with energy.

"What is that?" I asked Truce. Approaching us, he gasped and snatched the object from Liru.

"It's my badge," he said, rubbing it gently. "This particular badge is actually a one of a kind item. I'd like to tell you more about it but not here." He looked around the area, a bit troubled by something. "Okay, looks like we're ready to go. Huddle up next to me and we'll be back in headquarters in no time." Practically hugging, we waited as Truce held up the badge. The blinding light hit us and the feeling of travel was nauseating. What used to be a forest soon became buildings that looked modern and man-made. Letting go of the Zangoose, Liru and I looked around in awe. Feeling a claw placed on our shoulders, Truce smiled. "Welcome to Sofeda."

"H-h-how... Did you b-b-build all of this?" I stammered out in shock. Running a paw down a section of wall, I was simply amazed. The craftsmanship on these structures were absolutely stunning.

"Well," Truce began, "When the humans all suddenly disappeared, they left all of their shelters behind. Using them as a model, we had a couple of Timburrs, Gurderrs, and Conkeldurrs-."

I waved my paws in front of Truce's face. "Back up. What did you mean when you said that all the humans disappeared?"

Truce looked utterly confused. "I mean what I said. They all vanished from these lands a couple of years ago. I don't really know all the details, but yea, they're all gone now."

Liru stepped in to back up Truce's claim. "We're very far away from home, Winta. After getting taken from you, those bad guys just took me around from place to place for almost a year. Like Truce said, they all just disappeared one day and I found myself freed from their clutches." This was disturbing news. Still feeling the carvings engraved onto this building, I couldn't believe what I had heard.

"Winta, was it?" Truce mumbled. "While were here, could you keep this talk about humans on the down low? It's still kind of a touchy subject and you wouldn't want to cause any trouble around here. Now, with that out of the way just follow me and I can show you around." Sighing, I gave a nod and walked behind the two. We arrived at a plaza like area where a grand fountain stood. A more detailed look at this statue showed a sword sticking into the ground while a shield that had an image of a brain etched into it hung from the sword's handle. Water erupted from a hidden nozzle located at the top of the sword's hilt, creating a gorgeous display of art just as the sunlight hit it at the perfect angle. Past this fountain were three paths, each of them leading towards a different building.

"Each path leads to a different division," Truce stated proudly. "Now, each of the three divisions has a captain in charge of their area as well as three different chief officers who command the normal officers below them. Since the both of you are still recruits, it will take a bit of time and effort before you can join those ranks. For now, you'll either be training or taking on small jobs." Pointing to the east, Truce continued on with what appeared to be a rehearsed speech. "Over there lies Offensive Superiority. With both physical and special attacks along with infliction status conditions, they take down foes through sheer power and debilitating effects with ease. Across from them on the western side is Defensive Defiance. Utilizing both physical and special defense to shield their allies as well as healing the wounded both on the field and off the field makes them a respected force to be reckoned with. Finally, to our north is where Intelligence Central is founded. Providing information through research, reconnaissance, and interrogation keeps us one step ahead of our enemies. All factions are an important part of Sofeda and without the support of one another, this organization would simply crumble. By joining us, remember to keep this spirit of togetherness a flame so that one day you too can pass the torch down to the next generation of recruits." Ending with a pose of pointing to the sky, Truce groaned and rubbed his neck. "Sorry about that. There's this tradition around here that forces a chief officer to deliver this speech to all new recruits. At first it was fun, but after doing it so many times, it gets old pretty fast."

I shook awake after hearing the last couple of sentences. "Wait, you're a chief?" I gasped. Taking another glance at the zangoose, I couldn't tell if he was lying or not.

"Yea, you remember my badge right?" Truce said, pulling the eye shaped metal from his bag. "Here, see this jewel? Each captain and chief officer has one just like this, but they're all different colors. As for the shape of the badge, they represent the area of expertise that we have control of. Since I'm the chief of recon, mine's shaped like an eye."

After hearing what he had to say, there was still something that still confused me. "If you're a chief, why do you let Liru hurt you and stuff. I mean, wouldn't that look bad if someone thought you were getting attacked?"

Liru started to chuckle at where this conversation was headed. "After the bad guys went away, Truce found and took care of me. He taught and trained me to become fast, which wasn't easy since I wasn't built for speed in the first place. After many years of living with Truce, I started to look up to him as a father figure and we developed a bond that the others here already know about. Now that you're here, I have both my mommy and daddy with me. It's kind of like we're a family!" My stomach dropped as Truce and I both looked towards one another and slowly backed away from each other.

"Sorry, kid," Truce said crossing his arms. "But you look too young for me. If you were more mature, then maybe-."

"And I'm completely uninterested!" I shouted, blushing that he even considered me as a potential mate.

Liru suddenly roared with laughter. "Aw, you should have seen the look on your faces," she hollered. "I was only kidding around, but now I'm gonna try to get you two together!" Liru winked towards me. Even though I knew she was just joking again, I couldn't help but hate her for saying that. Marching along the north path, we finally arrived at the headquarters of Intelligance Central. Passing through the automated sliding doors, the inside of this place looked very modern. The polished smooth stone floors and reflective metallic walls gave the place a feeling of intimidation. Adding to this was the number of pokemon who all turned to look at us when we walked on in. I did my best to ignore their quiet gossiping, but there was one pokemon that stood out the most to me. Almost three times my height, this huge Dragonite stopped his conversation with a Gengar and gazed silently at me. The look that he gave off appeared as if he was closely studying me, giving me the shakes. Rubbing off the goosebumps, I didn't notice that Truce had stopped in his tracks and I accidentally walked into his soft floofy tail. The way that he yelped out in surprise was quite adorable despite the stern look he gave me with his reddening face.

"Sorry about that," he said turning back to a pokemon in front of him. At first I thought he was talking to a person, but looking closer made me realize that it was an old Mr. Mime.

"Hahohahaa," he rumbled with laughter, "I haven't heard you cry like that since you yourself were just a recruit." Patting Liru's head, the way he smiled could fill anybody up with a sense of achievement. "Goodness little Liru, I can't believe that you finally made it past the trial. When Truce first brought you here, you seemed so scared, so frightened at the world around us. Those feelings of fear slowly buried the flame that I saw in your eyes and I couldn't help but feel sorry for you. But now look at how much you have grown! Gone is the darkness as that flame has now grown to be bright and strong! It fills this old elder's soul with pleasure to see youth such as yourself stepping up to the challenge of defending these lands. Congratulations!" After expressing his joy through clapping, he soon took a slight interest in me. "Oh? I see that you brought along a friend. Hmm! My, oh, my! And what a unique friend this is!" Taking a couple steps forward, he examined me for a bit before turning back to Truce. "You don't normally see Charmanders around these parts. Then again, most of our members aren't from around these parts either!"

Slapping the Mr. mime on the back, Truce gave off his trademarked grin. "Very true, old friend and well said! Anyways Souna, this here Charmander helped Liru out during her trial and together they passed with flying colors. That's right, we're getting two new members today and that means more paperwork for you."

Clasping his hands together, Souna turned to me with the same smile he gave Liru. "Ah, splendid! Extra work won't be a problem for me if it means that such a capable looking pokemon such as yourself would join our ranks. Oh, pardon my manners. I am Elder Souna and I manage the files of all the pokemon within this organization." Shaking hands with the elder, I only introduced my name. "Well Winta, bring Liru along and come with me. Oh and Truce? The boss made it clear that she wanted to see you when you came back." Truces eyes began to bulge out. Without a second thought, he raced away at an alarming rate. Chuckling softly to himself, Souna lead us to a room where the shelves were brimming with paper. "When recruits such as yourselves join up, I must first determine the ideal division to place you in. To do this, I must use my psychic powers to look at the potential deep within you. Let's start with you Liru." Propping her up on a chair, the Mr. mime began by staring into Liru's eyes. A purple aura covered Souna's hands and he slowly gripped Liru's head carefully. They stayed like this for a couple of awkward minutes until I heard both of them gasp. "It seems that," Souna panted, "you will be joining Truce's team. The fact that he raised you must have been a huge influence, but it does seem to suit you. Now Winta, I'll get to you as soon as I catch my breath." Liru gleefully hopped down to let me into the chair. Meanwhile, Souna was writing something down onto a notebook. Tearing the page out, he gave it to Liru and sent her off.

"Alrighty, let's see what kind of potential lies within you my dear." Following the same procedure that he went through with Liru, I found myself caught within Souna's hypnotic gaze. The feeling of his hands grasping my head didn't quite register in my mind. However, I could feel him prodding around inside, gently interacting with my psyche. The entirety of this experience was very calm and soothing. Pretty soon, we both gasped as he exited my mental body. "Oh...oh my," he calmly stated. "This is troublesome. Winta, parts of your psyche appears to be damaged by some sort of internal conflict between two large spiritual forces. Two possible outcomes could be made from this battle: either one of these entities has been eliminated by the other, or they struck each other hard enough to merge into one."

"What does that mean?" I asked, a bit scared of how serious his tone was.

"Well truth be told, I have no idea what it means. This is a rare condition that is hard, if not impossible, to treat. Not to mention all the risks, I'm afraid that I am unable to help you." I gave a tiny sigh that was a mixture of relief and disappointment. It looks like he didn't find out about my human past, but was very close. "Despite all the damage, I've managed to determine that the special attack division would be the best place to suit your skills. I believe that they will find your destructive powers to be one of the best around." Giving me a note and some directions, I soon found myself inside the building of Offensive Superiority. The amount of intimidation coming from all these tough looking pokemon made my heart beat sporadically. I soon found myself unable to breath due to the pressure. Its as if a vice had found its way onto my chest and started to tighten itself. Rushing back outside, I coughed out loud while struggling to control my breathing. As this was going on, I sensed a presence behind me.

"Hey, are you alright?" he asked. Turning around, I was now face to face with an Alakazam. "I assume that you're the new recruit Souna mentioned to me via telepathy. Your name is Winta, correct?" Giving a nod after regaining my breath, the Alakazam returned his approval with a nod. "Wonderful. I am Plena, chief officer of the special attacks division. I'm sorry about what my subordinates had done to you when you first arrived. They seem to always pick on the newbies by acting like thoughtless barbarians. You seem to be different from the rest of them, but I must first test out your abilities to see if you belong here. Come." Leading me off to what looked like some kind of outdoors arena, I could see a group of pokemon crowded together and waiting. One of them spotted us and alerted the rest. Pretty soon, cheers of "Hurry up chief!" and "We wanna break in the new kid!" erupted from the crowd. Gesturing with his hands to keep the volume down, Plena and I reached the eager gang.

"Is this all? She doesn't even look that tough!" a Flaffy shouted. This caused a domino effect of disappointed cries being heard from the group. Plena gave a long sigh of disapproval.

"Let's just get this tradition over with so we can get back to work. Form a line over there and wait until I give the okay to start fighting." Taking position across from the line, my first opponent was the Flaffy. The air around him was charged with energy, showing just how excited he was. "Ooh, I'm gonna enjoy breaking you," he mouthed off to me and the crowd. Waiting for Plena's signal, we stared each other down in an attempt to intimate the opposition. Once he gave us the okay, the battle was on. Barely dodging a bout of electricity, I was stunned at how quick and powerful his attack was. "Oh?" the Flaaffy wondered aloud. "You dodged it? There aren't that many who could effectively dodge that. Then again, it's only that fast because I sacrificed power for speed. Even if it did hit, I wouldn't-" Taking the initiative, I blew out a burst of ember in hopes of hitting him when he was talking. He was able to nearly avoid taking the full hit as the flame singed off some of his fluff. Seeing the burn marks on the right side of his shoulder, his face took on a serious expression. Firing off a flurry of bolts, I managed to avoid most of his attacks. However, a stray bolt struck my left leg and I was brought down onto a knee. The hit reminded me of the feeling that one would get after sticking a fork into an outlet. Shaking the blow off, I soon saw a bunch of floating wool swarm around me. The faint sound of crackling static made me aware of the attack, but by then it was too late as these things started to stick onto me. Slowed by the wool, I hurled a gushing spout of fire at the Flaffy. Responding with a large wave of electricity, the sudden explosion caused by these two forces slamming into one another provided him with a perfect opportunity to counter-attack. Appearing through the smoke, the flaaffy rushed head first into me. Slamming into the area underneath my belly, he successfully tackled into me and launched me back a couple feet. Before I could even respond to the pain in my groin, a strong jolt of lightning struck my form and burned off all the wool stuck to me. The pain around my entire body was then amplified when another more powerful bolt made its mark on my chest. Crumpled in a heap after those multiple attacks, all that I could hear was the sound of laughter. Taking a glance over to the line, I saw the Flaafy interacting with the crowd. Wincing from all the pain, I slowly made my way up from off the ground. Fueled with rage, I'll be damned if I just gave up now. Noticing that I still had some fight left in me, the Flaafy looked to Plena before coming back to the center of the arena slowly. His stupid face glowed with pity as he looked at me, smiling at the damage that he had done to my body.

"You just don't know when to quit. I like that in a potential mate!" Hearing the word "mate" just set me off. My mind raced uncontrollably and rising through to capitalize on the chaos was instinct. Spitting out a cloud of thick black smoke, I saw his face go from smug to shocked before he was enveloped in it. Pushing forward, I did my best to ignore the pain and charged forward with my claws. With the flame on my tail blazing brightly, I lost myself to the giddiness of battle. The smoke began to clear and the flaaffy could be seen rubbing his eyes in displeasure. Striking multiple times with scratch and ember, a maniacal smile soon grew on my face. The way he cried out in pain every time I hit caused a rush of happiness to spread throughout my body. The silence of the crowd as I smashed the flaaffy down was extremely satisfying and I soon jumped back to prepare for my final flame attack. It was here that I noticed what was actually going on. Consumed by instinct, I had turned an embarrassing defeat into a stunning and shameful victory. Did I deserve this win? Was that really me fighting or this other persona that had found its way into my psyche. I was unhappy. Frightened. I almost went and attacked a guy who had already been knocked out. I could have killed him. I would have killed him if I didn't return to my senses in time. Cringing, all the pain that I ignored up until now rushed back and I felt my heart skip a beat or two. Everything swirled around and around until my vision faded. The last thing that I felt was the hard surface of the ground connecting with my aching body before losing consciousness.

I found myself sitting in a strange area. Around me was the smoldering ruins of a place that reminded me of home. Wait. This is my home. My human home. Panicking, I tried to get up and run towards the building but something around my neck held me back by choking me. Feeling around my neck, I found a leather collar with a dog tag under my chin. A chain connected the collar to a burning rock shaped like a tree. Desperately pulling at the chain and the collar, I came to the conclusion that it was impossible to remove. Even trying to melt the chain with my fire attacks didn't work. The crunching of dried grass alerted me to the presence of another.

"It's good to see you! Or should I say me?" Emerging from behind the tree, another Charmander appeared with an arrogant smirk plastered on his face.

"W-what do you mean?" I growled. Taking his time approaching me, he gave a shrug and shook his head slowly.

"Think back to what that Mr. Mime had told you. You know, about how your psyche was damaged by internal conflict? Well, this is what he saw when he entered your mind." Gasping after finding out where I was, I examined the scene around us. The place did look like a battlefield, but if this was true then... "Of course it's true," the other Charmander giggled. "I fought your human form in here and won easily. Merging with you and taking over should have also been easy but I didn't take into account the overwhelming amount of stubbornness still left in you at the time. The process was interrupted about halfway through the conversion. Although all of of your body was completely changed, most of your will and mind was left intact. After what seemed like a day, an unexpected change to our gender had occurred and we were now left with a female version of my body coupled with your thoughts and memories." Taking a moment to absorb all this info in, I still had a question to as this guy.

"Why did you choose me to change? I was nothing but a failure of a man who basically lost everything in his life. My friends stabbed me in the back, my home ruined from said friends, and my family completely destroyed. I-" The other charmander placed paw over my mouth.

"You were chosen because of your hardships, Winta. The transformation should have given us a clean slate to start anew. Think about it. After changing, you were reunited with your long lost baby Totodile and joined an organization dedicated to helping out these lands. Life can only get better for the both of us." Finding some sort of comfort in his word, I teared up and hugged him. The feel of his scales on mine put me at ease and I relaxed my tense muscles. Part of me hated what he just said while a majority of me slowly started to embrace them. A soft click was heard and the collar fell from my neck. Inscribed upon the dog tag were unknown letters spelling out the word "fear".

"Once you accepted you new self, you'll find yourself free," he grinned.


	2. Chapter 2

I awoke with a shake and a shiver to find myself in a bed placed in the corner of an unknown room. Something about me was different, as if I had somehow been reborn. From the twitching in my tail to the wiggling of my toes and paws, for the first time in a long time I truly felt that I had total control over my body. Happily taking a hold of my wagging tail, the warmth from that appendage started to spread across my entire body. Giggling, I soon caught the scent of someone approaching from the hallway. A couple of knocks on the door later and in walked a cute looking Audino who gave me a curious glance.

"Well good morning dear," he spoke softly. Still clutching my tail closely, my face heated up from the embarrassment of being seen doing this. The audino only smiled as he turned to leave. "Please relax for a moment while I go get the healer who treated you." After gently closing the door, I was left alone with the urge to observe my surroundings. The first thing that I noticed were the tacky yellow colored walls with painted pictures of various flowers scattered everywhere. On the wall to my right were a couple of open windows that would let in a cooling breeze. Meanwhile, a quiet snoring to my left had just gone unnoticed until now. Shocked, I found the Flaaffy from before sleeping on the other side of the room. He was covered up in bandages and his breathing had become short and ragged. I kinda felt sorry for what I did to him. I mean, he only deserved about half of what I had given him. Seeing him grumble awake, I dropped my line of thinking and watched him. Seeing his body all wrapped up, he tried to move around only to wince from the soreness of his injuries.

"Damn that charmander," he huffed in frustration. "Damn the way that her eyes flared up with murderous determination. It was like she turned into a completely different pokemon. How the hell did she change like that all of a sudden?" I gave a cough to get his attention.

"You know, if you weren't such a big asshole back there, you might have been able to walk away as the victor. Now it looks like you wouldn't be able to walk at all for the next week or so." Realizing that I was in the room with him, he quickly clamped his mouth shut. Unable to turn his head to look at me, he just stared up at the ceiling.

"Asshole, huh," he chuckled quietly. "Says the girl with the attitude problem. You just got lucky that day." After a few more minutes of silence, he slowly drifted back into dreamland. Beating off the urge to punch him in the gut, I took a peek out the window. Off in the distance I could see the sun slowly rising above the foundation of Offensive Superiority. A couple of quick knocks at the door soon echoed into the room and in walked the audino accompanied by a blissey. A glint of light bouncing off of something attached to the blissey's egg pouch caught my eye but I couldn't make it due to being blinded by it. Clasping her paws together, the blissey gave a graceful smile before approaching.

"Hello Winta. My name is Olein and it's good to see you up and looking healthy. After being treated for about two days, it's safe to say that you can leave whenever you want today. Feel free to come and find me if you start to experience any sort of pain or discomfort. Do you have any questions before I go?" I was about to say something when the door had suddenly exploded open and knocked the audino forward into the flaaffy's bed. The sound of his agony filled the room and spilled out into the hallway. Along with the shrieks of pain came the sound of someone shouting my name before something heavy landed on top of me. Getting pulled into a hug, I returned the embrace and snickered a bit when I realized who it was.

"You've always had a horrible sense of timing Liru," I whispered to the Totodile.

She punched me on the back and told me to shut up. "I was worried sick about you and the first thing you say to me is that?" she whispered back with a hint of fear in her voice. "When you didn't wake up for a day, I thought I lost you again."

I pushed her away for a moment to look her straight in the eyes. "It'll take more then that screaming ball of fuzz over there to take me down permanently," I grinned, pointing to the flaaffy. Olein and the audino managed to calm him down by now and together all looked at Liru angrily. Stepping forward, the blissey puffed up her chest and exhaled in frustration.

"What you did was unacceptable. I can kind of forgive you for disturbing the peace of all the patients here, but causing injury to them? That's taking it too far. Now tell me who your commanding chief is so that I can tell them of your actions." Arriving on cue, Truce appeared huffing for a breath.

"There you are," he panted. "I looked everywhere for you. Should have realized sooner that you'd come here to visit Winta." His smile turned sour when he saw Olein glaring at him. Taking a couple of steps back, he turned to Liru and me. "Oh crap. What did you guys do?" Pointing a paw at the Zangoose, Olein approached him with a look in her eyes that just screamed danger.

"That blue hooligan is one of yours I presume?" Truce stumbled to find the right words but Olein placed her paw onto his muzzle. "I don't want to hear it. Just take her away from this place. I'm going to go lie down for a minute to ease my headache and I expect the both of you to be gone by then. Got it?" Nodding his head furiously, he moved to the side of the room to let her through. "Oh, before I forget," she said turning to look at me, "Sorry Winta, but please come find me if you have any questions or start to feel any kind of pain. Have a wonderful day dear." With that said, she gently closed the door and left.

Wiping his brow, Truce released the breath that he was holding in. "Come on, you two," he grumbled. "Let's get going before we get into some serious trouble."

"She was the chief of health and recovery?" Liru cried in astonishment. I too was surprised after finding this out. Putting some things together in my head, I came up with a mischievous idea.

"It looked like you two knew each other. I wonder if there was something that went wrong between you two. You know, relationship wise?" Seeing Truce blush, it seemed that I hit the nail on the head but he waved it off.

"No, nothing like that happened between us. It was just something I did long ago that peeved her off. Sort of like what Liru did to that Flaafy, only it was much more worse." I decided to drop the subject since I didn't want to pry into his past.

"So where we headed to?" I asked, concerned that he wouldn't let me go to my division.

"Well, my captain took an interest in you after your battle with a pokemon who had almost triple the amount of battle experience than you and wanted me to bring you in to meet with him. He's a nice guy but can be very unpredictable, so I don't really know what his intentions are. Anyways, we have to hurry up or else we'll be late." Going through the lobby of Intelligence Central again, I saw a couple of pokemon who were whispering to one another and pointing at us. It reminded me of our first day here which irritated me for a moment.

"Is it always like this around here?" I whispered to Truce. He gave a shrug and a nod before leading us up a couple of stairs. When we climbed up to the fifth and final floor, he turned and whispered back to me.

"This place basically runs on intel. Once word got out that the captain actually wanted to see you, the pokemon around here start to theorize and rumors begin to circulate around. So to answer your question: yes, it's always like that around here." We soon reached a very large door made of what appeared to be stone.

"Hey Liru, I don't think you'll be able to bust on through this door with that thick head of yours," I joked. She made a face and stuck out her tongue before preparing to give the door a kick. Seeing this, Truce quickly grabbed at the Totodile to stop her and after getting munched on succeeded in preventing the destruction of the property.

"It's not real stone," he said rubbing his bitten arm. Giving a couple knocks with his uninjured paw, the sound that the door made was actually quite hollow. The clicking of locks from the other side of the door was heard and to my surprise, I found myself looking at a familiar face.

"Plena?" I wondered aloud. Truce also looked at him confused, but the alakazam just smiled and waved us in. Following Truce and Liru inside, we found ourselves surrounded by a couple of pokemon scattered around the room. Looking around, I noticed someone who I haven't seen in a while. Waving to him, the Litleo that we saved smiled and ran over.

"Hiya char girl!" he beamed adorably. "I just wanted to thank you for fighting that Tauros with me."

I gave him a playful pat on his head. "Yea, it's no problem. Say, what are you doing here?" He jumped around to face the direction of an even larger fire cat and a Slaking talking to one another.

"My dad came over here to talk with the leader of this place. Since he's the king of the nearby city, I guess he wanted to thank your organization personally for finding and sending me home."

Before I could voice my surprise at finding out the leader was that Slaking, the feeling of someone tapping my shoulder caused me to turn around. My eyes bulged out in shock from seeing someone so huge up close to me. I clamped my muzzle together to avoid screaming out.

"Oh, I apologize for frightening you," the enormous dragonite said sincerely. He then tried to hide a mischievous grin from me. "Not the expected outcome that I had hoped for, but regardless I still enjoyed your reaction. Anyways, I've heard many a great things about you little one and wanted meet you for myself." Calming down but now a bit peeved off, I realized that this must have been the captain. "Where are my manners?" he gasped. "Lets redo this meeting, alright?" He then preceded to turn around in circles a couple of times before extending his right paw forward. "Hello Winta! My name's Haless and it's so good to finally meet you. From what I heard, there are many things about you that makes you such an interesting pokemon." The entire situation was just weirding me out and I the only thing I could do was accept his paw (well, one of his claws because he was so huge) and shake. "Quite a grip you got there missy. Let's just go over there to make this conversation a tad more private, hmm?" Going along with him, I told Liru where I was headed and asked her to say here and keep watch. Nearing the corner of the room, the dragonite sat down and rested his back on the two walls. "I just knew something was special about you when I first saw you in the lobby," he began. "Being an 'inexperienced newbie', you've already beaten an outlaw who almost reached the C-rank, gave amazing orders to your teammate to overcome an uneven battle, and even defeated someone in your division who specializes in taking down foes. What's more is that both Souna and Plena confirmed that some kind of battle between two personae had occurred inside you and that they may have merged together. That's so freaking cool!" I stood in silence while thinking back to those moments. We're they really that great?

"Hey Haless!" somebody shouted. "The meeting is about to start so get off your bum and come here." Groaning, the dragonite struggled to stand. After rolling off his back and onto his knees, he got on his feet and pouted.

"I'm afraid that you'll have to give me all the details later. When duty calls, I have to go and answer it." His face suddenly brightened up as an idea rose up from the top of his head. "Say, why don't you and your friend stay and watch? Recruits rarely get the chance to see how these meeting go, but I'll make an exception for you two. I'm sure Truce would agree with me since he has to attend the meeting too." We went over and talked to Liru about this and together as a group walked towards the crowd of pokemon that had gathered around a large circular table. Other than Truce, I recognized Olein and Plena, who both gave me a nod of acknowledgment. Upon seeing us, many of the other pokemon were not amused.

"Haless," a Salamance angrily grunted, "What are those two doing here? Don't you know that we're going to have an important discussion?" Laughing sheepishly, he waved off her intimidation like it was nothing.

"Come on, Landus. Every month we come together like this to give out a status report and voice our concerns. It really isn't that important and our friends here can learn a bit more about the way we run things around here. You wouldn't want to deny our youth the chance to become more educated about our organization, do you?" Some of the pokemon snickered while others took his words seriously. Looking around the table, the Salamance grunted in submission to the pressure.

"Alright fine," she grumbled. "I hate it when you guilt trip me like that. You two go sit over there by the wall and listen. Now let's hurry up and get on with this meeting." Waving her paws in the air, Olein took the floor. "I guess I'll start. Over the course of the month, my division has healed 109 members and 23 clients. I would have loved to yell at you all to tell your subordinates to stop being so reckless in the field, but I'll hold my tongue since the numbers had actually decreased from the previous mouth. The only concern that I have is in regards to what had happened this morning involving a member under the chief of recon injuring a member under the chief of special attack."

Truce stepped up and looked at her apologetically. "She didn't mean to hurt that patient. She was just very worried about her friend's health."

Liru got up and bowed her head in respect. "I'm so sorry for my actions this morning. Please don't blame Truce for what I did."

Olein pondered for a moment and finally came up with a decision. "I'll forgive you this time, but do anything else in my area again and you'll regret it." The rest of the meeting followed the same pattern of giving a report before bringing up a concern. Daylight burned away and Liru and I became bored out of our minds. However, when it was Plena's turn to say something, he just stood up and pointed to me which caused me to jump awake.

"Now many of you know that those two over there are our newest members. We have seen Liru around here many times, learning from the chief of recon in the hopes of following in his footsteps. Now that she actually made it in, I have high hopes for her success. As for Winta, well it would be shocking if you haven't heard of her. After witnessing firsthand the amount of potential within her, I would like to ask if she could somehow be transferred over to Intelligence Central."

Stomping the floor, the Salamance roared with rage. "Why would you even suggest such a thing? Someone like her is destined to become a savage fighter well respected in our ranks."

Plena raised a palm. "Normally, I would have agreed with you captain. Watching her fight, it seems that she could have become a top tier fighter in our division. But when she suddenly stopped attacking, I sensed something wrong within her and decided to probe within her mind. In the blink of an eye, her lust for battle shifted and a flood of mental processes overwhelmed her. All the raw emotions and strings of information that raced through her was too much for me to bare so I forced her brain to shut down and put her into a deep slumber to stop it. It is because of this that I have requested for her transfer."

Haless smirked and used this opportunity to express his thoughts. "If I may interrupt, I believe that I've got an idea to solve this issue. With the way things are now, I feel that we have all become divided. Each division does their own separate thing and it's getting in the way of our main objective: to forge a path towards a peaceful era. Competition is fine but when it gets destructive like the recent traditional fight that happened in the special attack division, then what's the point? Looking at the plaza's fountain for inspiration, what I propose are teams made up of pokemon from different groups. Imagine the unbreakable bonds that we can forge with one another. Think about how successful missions would become once we have teams with a variety of skills and abilities to utilize. Of course this is all just theory right now but with someone like Winta to test this out, I'm positive that this would work!"

A loud clapping echoed throughout the room. "Wonderful as always Haless," rumbled the Slaking who was casually laying on his side. "I would like to have a word with you and Winta in private to plan out this new team system of yours. If it does work, then we would all be one step closer to the peace that we seek." Shaking his head, Haless began to outright explain his plans to the rest of the captains and chiefs.

"You want me to do what?" I yelled out of surprise. Around front of me, the various chiefs and captains of Sofeda were murmuring to each other about the Dragonite's proposal. Landus roared with anger and shut everybody up in an instant. Rubbing the veins that popped up on her forehead, she closed her eyes and took deep breaths in order to calm down.

"Give me a moment so that I can try to understand this absurd scheme of yours," she finally said after a long silence. "You want to create a group that consists of members from each of our divisions. I was against that idea at first, but it makes sense to combine forces in order to become stronger. However, what I don't understand is why you plan on letting that whelp over there take charge of the team."

Haless merely sighed and shook his head. "Maybe you were right Ulfor," he said to the Slaking, "maybe we should have talked about this privately."

"Don't you ignore me!" Landus growled. Stomping her way up to meet Haless face to face, she stood like a wall built out of irritation.

"Didn't we already establish how amazing that so called whelp is?" Haless stated boldly. "Strong and capable, she's a natural born leader who is new and untainted by our rules and regulations. This purity will be the most crucial part of this operation and it will absolutely guarantee success." The room fell quiet again and the two dragons stared off at one another. Landus searched within the dragonite's eyes for any sign of deception and scoffed after finding none.

"Tch, have it your way. This meeting is over." Pushing past the others, she left the area in a hurry with a strange bounce in her steps. With Landus gone, the meeting really did come to a close and I was left speechless. The responsibility of a team now rested on my shoulders and the pressure of success had already started to wear me down. A pat on my back knocked my thoughts away and I turned to see Truce and Haless smiling at me.

"Jeez, it's barely been a week and you already get assigned something as huge as this," Truce chuckled merrily.

"And you were knocked out for almost half of it," Haless said with a giant grin. "I look forward to the results of this little experiment! Get some rest tonight and report to my office in the morning so that we can get the team up and running. Oh, and if you have any pokemon in mind that you'd like to recruit, I'm open to your suggestions."

_Pressure. The feeling of it bearing down on me was overwhelming. It focused around my chest, the force of it all made it hard to breath. The silhouette of a figure was seen for a second before I shut my eyes in pain. Instincts that I had just accepted were now being overrun by new found fears. "Stop. Please..." I barely managed to wheeze out. Struggling for air, I sunk into submission once I realized how helpless the situation had become..._

...I awoke, sitting up and gasping for oxygen. The fire on my tail flickered sporadically in the dark room, which was spinning as I clutched my aching head. My thoughts drifted back to my strange nightmare. For a dream, it felt eerily real. Like something was actually pushing into my chest with the intent of doing permanent damage. As I was thinking through all of the possibilities that could have caused that pressure, eventually the events from yesterday came back to mind and it immediately made my heart beat faster. Yawning, I laid back down on the stiff mattress. I was happy that they moved me into Liru's room. It was a large area made for holding at least three inhabitants. Once you got used to the beds, the place had a homey feel to it. Looking over to my friend's sleeping form, her calm and relaxed breathing reminded me of my own tiredness. Even though daylight would come in a few short hours, I wanted to sleep off the grogginess still lingering in my head. A bit wary at first, I shut my eyes and hoped that the pressure didn't come back.

I came to feeling refreshed in both mind and body. The sun shone brightly, invigorating my mood and erasing away the uneasiness caused by the early morning episode. Stretching my limbs, the excitement of what today had in store bubbled through my veins and my tail wagged around in joy.

"Whoa, you're in a great mood today," Liru yawned from across the room. I froze in embarrassment, not expecting her to still be in bed.

"Just getting up sleepyhead?" I giggled, bending down to touch my toes. A dangerous aura was sensed from behind but before I could react to it, the Totodile sped forward and playfully tackled me. We tumbled around on the ground together for about five seconds until she grabbed me by the shoulders and pinned me down.

"Who are you calling a sleepyhead?" she laughed. "You just got up a couple of minutes earlier then me." Caught red handed, I blushed and started to squirm underneath her. After rolling off me and brushing away the dust from her scales, she offered a paw which I gratefully accepted. Once up, the room was filled with the sound of a stomach rumbling and Liru's face heated up. Before I could laugh, my own stomach growled. "That's right, we kinda missed dinner last night since the meeting went on for so long," Liru chuckled while rubbing the back of her neck. "Let's go get some breakfast before we do anything else."

Grinning mischievously, I took off and yelled, "Bet I can get there first!" Racing down to the mess hall should have been a simple contest. However, in my haste I quickly realized that I had no idea where to go. Couple this with the fact that Liru was extremely fast on her feet and all you have left is one slow and hungry Charmander who just became lost. Wandering the halls in my pitiful state, a low buzzing echoed from somewhere close by. Curiosity pulled me towards the source of the sound, leading me to the end of the hallway. A strange scent lingered in the air as I got closer to the door. It had a pleasant fruitiness to it, yet at the same time irritated my senses. Without a second thought, I threw the door open and felt my nostrils become overwhelmed by the stench. Blinded and choking on the fumes, I managed to find the wall and followed it to an area clear from the gas. Wiping my watering eyes, I could barely see someone slowly approaching.

"Salutations, friend," they said in a semi-robotic voice. I recognized it to be Cykoria, a Porygon who happens to be the chief of research. Still feeling a tickling in my throat, I waved at it(?) and smiled.

"Hey Cyko! How are you today?" I asked.

"Doing fine, but please refer to me by my full name" it replied.

I shrugged. "Okay Cykoria. By the way, even though we've met only yesterday, I've been wondering if you're a boy or a girl." Staring at me with unblinking eyes, they just floated there in silence. "Uh, hello?" I questioned, waving a paw back and forth in front of his face. "Are you alright? You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

"No, it's fine,"they suddenly said. "Being curious builds intelligence. Sorry for being inactive for the past couple of minutes but I needed to download the data of my latest experiment. To answer your question, I don't associate myself to either gender. Rather, I am genderless and have no need to trouble myself with something that is not important to me. Getting back on topic, I would like to know about why you tried to enter my lab." I told them about how I got lost and saw something weird in the porygon's eyes. "Strange. Something within my databanks appears to be corrupted. I must return to my lab at once." Giving me directions to the mess hall, he sped back to his room and somehow slammed the door. Another growl from my stomach was all I needed to get moving. Chattering and laughter appeared to get louder with every step that I took. The aroma of soup and the sound of frying only added to my hunger and I broke out into a sprint. Turning the corner, this tunnel vision of mine made me run into the cream colored belly that belonged to Haless.

"Whoa! What the- Hey, there you are!" he said as I bounced off his pudgy tummy. Landing on my rump with a soft thump, I stared up with an apologetic look in my eyes. He held in a chuckle and waved his paw to signal forgiveness. "I was just looking for you, Winta. Come on, lets go talk about recruiting some members for your team." Forced to go along with him, I whimpered, glanced back at the mess hall, and clutched my stomach. Entering the dragonite's chambers, I noticed it was pretty spacious. It makes sense since he is a huge pokemon compared to most of the others. The walls were plain gray, to show his connection as the captain of the intelligence branch of Sofeda. Unown lettering covered the floor and roof, giving it a creepy sense of being watched. His desk was stuck in a corner and on it were several stacks of folders. He motioned for me to sit down and I obeyed out of politeness. Tossing a small stack of papers to me, Haless looked at me and his demeanor changed drastically.

"Okay, serious time. Souna gave me most of his files on all current members of this organization and I've already gone through them. From this stack of over two hundred, I've narrowed it down to about twenty-five potential recruits to start off with. I give you the power to choose up to five. You must try to get at least one from each of the three branches, otherwise there wouldn't be a point in calling this the unity project. Now we're gonna tackle small operations at first to test the waters. When the team starts to build up more and more recognition through success, we'll be able to add on more members and take on riskier missions. Got all that?" I didn't know if it was the hunger or the uneasiness of his persona, but somehow I was simply stuck in a daze. I managed to make out the important parts of his speech and looked at the files in my paws. Out of these twenty-five profiles, five of them will get the honor of becoming a founding member of a team that I get to lead. I smiled seeing Liru's file being included and knew that she would be a major asset. With me and Liru representing Intelligence Central, I decided that the remaining four should come from the other branches. No matter who I pick, I just hope that we could all get along.

"These five will do," I said handing the profiles back to Haless. As he looked over the chosen folders I politely excused myself and walked away gracefully. Once I calmly closed the door behind me, a childish grin spread across my face. Sprinting off to the mess hall again with thoughts of relieving my belly from its emptiness, I turned left through the doorway only to find the place nearly empty. Cursing under my breath, I almost left until I heard the sound of someone calling for me from across the room. Waving a friendly blue paw around, Liru was smiling and chewing on something that looked delicious. Heading over, I was overjoyed when I discovered a tray of fruits that Liru prepared for me. Slurping at her paws as I sat down, she picked up a chesto berry and crunched into into it merrily.

"Haless told me to get you some food since he wanted to discuss some things with you privately," she said after swallowing. Rolling an apple around in my paws, I leaned in close and bit into it. Eyes widening at the sudden sweetness filling my mouth, the intensity of the flavor threw my mind into a world of bliss. Time passed by slowly as I enjoyed every bit of this wondrous fruit. Before I knew it, the apple had been completely consumed. Going through the rest of the food in the same manner, I patted my belly and squeaked out a tiny burp. Liru had already taken the tray back to the wash station where a Gardevior worked in. Handing the tray over to the elegant looking pokemon, Liru thanked her and began her return. As she made her way back to the table, a flash of brown traveled past her and bolted towards me. Before I could react, this pokemon that I now recognized as an Eevee collided head first into my chest. Together we tumbled towards the ground, rolling on top of one another until we were finally stopped by crashing into a wall. Both of us just laid there, confused and in pain after going through such an unusual ordeal.

"What's your problem?" Liru shouted towards my brown furred attacker before we both noticed a note that the Eevee held in its mouth. Flipping back to her feet and spitting the piece of paper out towards us the eevee mumbled out "for you" and rubbed her head. Picking it up, it appeared to be written in Unown.

_Winta, I have gone and gathered up the candidates you have chosen for the team. Meet us at the fountain of unity and bring both your blue scaled friend and the messenger that brought you this message. See you soon!_

_Intelligence Division Captain-Sir Haless the Dragonite_

"Oh! Does this mean that I'm on the team?" Liru asked with a glint of excitement in her eyes.

Before I could reply, the Eevee suddenly broke into our conversation. "We were some of the few who were chosen by the Intelligence captain right? Even if it isn't official yet, I'm fairly certain that we'll all make it in."

Liru glared at her. "Hey, who do you think you are? First you headbutt my friend over here. Then, without even apologizing to her first, you go and cut her off in the middle of our conversation." Taken by surprise by the harshness of her tone, the Eevee tensed her muscles and glowered back.

"I'm Nyami and I've been working around here for about three years. I may be in the wrong here so I sincerely apologize for hurting you Charmander. However, as a senior member of this organization I will not tolerate that force of tone from some unknown junior. Besides, I answered your question so you should be more grateful." I jumped up and clamped Liru's jaw to prevent her from saying anything else.

"Stop provoking her," I whispered into Liru's ear. "It really was just an accident and she's one of pokemon that I specifically asked for. Like it or not, we're going to be in the same team together so try to get along with her." The amount of killing intent radiating from these two was enough to make my stomach churn from fear. Acting as a mediator and a barrier, I stood in between these two as we walked to the fountain. Throughout this short twenty minute walk, I could feel their piercing gazes dig into me like daggers. When we got outside, the uneasiness lifted up a bit only to come crashing back down when the group of four waiting by the fountain came into view.

"OY! YER LATE NYAMI," screamed a Chikorita. Launching out some vines, we were caught unaware as they wrapped around our bodies. A quick yet forceful tug transported us the rest of the way. Plopping us down onto the ground like garbage, the Chikorita approached the eevee with an annoyed look in his eyes. "Aren't you suppose to be one of the fastest round here? Would have expected you to get the job done quicker then that." Nyami ground her teeth as she stood up and stayed silent. "And you two," the Chikorita continued as he focused on Liru and me. "You're both newbies right? How the hell did you weaklings even get picked to join this team?" A cough from behind made the Chikorita look back. "Their appearance masks their power, Ritch," a Spheal proclaimed as he rolled over to the Chikorita. "The blue one had been trained and raised like a daughter by the recon chief while the orange one managed to defeat Mishren with her own two paws." Hearing the Spheal's words, the chikorita's attitude and demeanor changed. "Mi-Mishren, are Jorge's words true?" the chikorita Gasped as he turned towards the moping, bandage covered Flaaffy. "Yeah...," the pink sheep grumbled as he turned to hide his face. Completely shocked by the news, the fire in the Chikorita's eyes flared up and he shouted at the top of his voice. "YOU MUST HAVE CHEATED SOMEHOW TO WIN AGAINST-."

"Enough," Haless stated sternly from the sky. His voice instantly defused the situation and the Chikorita's rage slowly died off. "I'll answer any and all questions later, but first we must head into the base that I received permission to use." Flying up towards the fountain, the Dragonite reached out with his badge in paw. Clicking the badge into the brain that was etched into the fountain's shield, the water suddenly stopped spouting from the sword's hilt. A gentle rumbling in the ground made us all cautious but that feeling soon disappeared when a passageway opened up behind the shield. "Okay, follow me," Haless said after landing close to the entrance. Unlike the other main buildings that Sofeda used, the state of this passageway was surprisingly poor. Multiple cracks in the walls of this tunnel and the debris littering the ground made it appear that the place hadn't been used in years. The tunnel led us into a trashed up room. "This place used to be Sofeda's first base of operations," Haless said somberly. "Back when the organization first started up, all three branches shared this space together. I was still just a dratini back then, but I can still remember the laughter that we all shared in these halls."

Nyami, after regaining her confidence, stepped up. "Jeez, how old are y- ack!" The Chikorita had used a vine to cover her mouth.

"Shh, quiet," Ritch whispered. "Can't you read the situation here?"

Haless turned and smiled. "It's quite alright. I'm as old as this organization so I guess that means I'm about a hundred?" Gasps echoed around the room when we heard this.

"A hundred?!" Nyami wheezed having broken out of Ritch's grasp.

Haless chuckled. "My kind usually live for quite some time. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask now."

Jorge the spheal bounced forward and stared directly into the dragonite's eyes. "What's the purpose of this team and why were we chosen to be in it."

Haless hid a faint grin under his paw and stared back to the intelligent spheal. "With a mind as sharp as that, you could have easily climbed the ranks in Intelligence Central. Tell me why you decided to join Defensive Defiance and I'll answer both of your questions."

Jorge sighed. "The answer is simple. Even though my mind is sharp, it could not even leave a scratch in the shield that my heart had established."

Haless nodded. "I see. I'll leave it be since it appears to be personal. Anyways, the purpose of this team is to revive the Sofeda of the past by promoting teamwork between the current three factions. The system as it is right now will only be a hindrance to Sofeda's main objective and is slowly killing the team. If it continues on like this, Sofeda itself will simply collapse from mistrust and infighting. As to why you all were chosen, ask Winta since she was the one who picked all of you."

Most of the group turned and looked at me. "You...picked me?" the flaaffy asked. His fighting spirit reignited and he was back to his old self again. "Is this... some kind of a SICK joke to you?!" He went up and picked me up by my shoulders. "Tell me, why the hell did you choose me to be in your team after what I did and said to you?" Looking into his watering eyes, I could tell that saying the wrong thing would simply break his composure and round two of our fight would breakout.

"The reason I chose you and all the others..." I began, "is not because of your strengths. All I did was look at the pictures that was taken of you all to see if you had that certain spark shimmering in your eyes. Out of all the candidates, the ones that are in this room right now had that certain spark and became worthy enough to join this team. Now please put me down, or else I'll put you back in the hospital." Noticing my grin, Mishren dropped me and walked back towards the others. Ritch got up to protest but the Flaaffy stopped and glanced back to me with a tiny smile on his face.

"If you're gonna put me back in the hospital, I'll make sure to bring you along with me after I'm done kicking your ass." With the situation defused for now, I noticed that the adorable sphere of blubber was staring at me with sparkling eyes. It was just now that I realized that he was still just a kid and easily impressionable despite his high intellect. Somehow, it makes me feel like protecting him and from what he had said to Haless, I couldn't imagine the kinds of experiences that had been witnessed through his eyes.

"Alright, does anybody else have any other questions?" asked the Dragonite.

This time, the Chikorita stepped forward. "Hold up," Ritch shouted as he pointed a paw towards me. "She just said that she got to choose the team. Does this mean that she's gonna be the leader of this group?"

Placing his paws onto his hips, Haless chuckled. "Well of course she'll be leading your team. It's because of her that I managed to convinced the other higher ups to give this project a chance."

Ritch stamped a foot down. "Why?! What's so special about this newcomer?"

Liru jumped forward with fangs bared. "Why are you making such a big deal out of this? Is it because you still think that we're weak? If that's the case, then let's take this outside and settle it."

The grass type stood his ground and faced the furious gator head on. "This is precisely why I don't trust newcomers," he argued. "You all have the same arrogant mindset that acts without thinking about the consequences. Working as a healer, I've seen countless veterans suffer from injuries that could have been prevented if their teammates hadn't been so rash."

"But Winta's different," Liru growled through clenched teeth. "She's... somebody that you can rely on no matter how perilous the situation has become. Just give us a chance, otherwise we will never be able to prove it to you."

Ritch turned and began to walk away. "That's... what they all say." After a couple of steps towards the door, a pink paw gently patted the Chikorita's neck and made him stop.

"Is this is about the fight between me and the char girl?" the Flaaffy asked. Getting no reply, he continued questioning. "Did it remind you about what happened three years ago?"

Ritch turned and glared at the sheep, trembling softly with a heated face. "You promised that you wouldn't bring that up again," he whispered in an irritated tone.

Mishren stared back and nodded. "Fine, I won't talk about that incident ever again. But please speak about what's on your mind since I seemed to have hit the mark."

The grass type huffed out an annoyed sigh and turned around. "The past is the past and I'm not gonna go and bring these memories back to the present. Winta, I'll give you a chance to prove your worth as a leader since everybody thinks you're capable. Show me that you're not a reckless monster and I'll tend to the team's injuries with my healing abilities. Got that?" I nodded, keeping this in mind as a sort of challenge to overcome. With all questions answered for now, Haless wasted no time as he put us to work by ordering us to clean the place up. The entire day was spent on this task and despite various fights and arguments between all of us, we managed to finish right as dinner ended. Returning only to find table scraps being cleaned up by the lovely Gardevoir , we all disbanded to our rooms feeling rather salty with one another and headed off to sleep. Pleasant dreams filled with delicious food gave me a very restful sleep. Morning routines and a hearty breakfast later, the team quickly assembled in the now tidy Unity base. We all lined up and faced Haless, who had prepared a blackboard for today.

**Hunt- Tracking down and arresting fugitives.**

**Escort- Traveling and protecting the client until you reach their destination.**

**Retrieval- Searching for an item that the client has lost and returning it to them.**

**Rescue- Tracking down and saving clients.**

"The Sofeda organization's main source of income comes from these four types of jobs," the Dragonite began as he pointed at the list. "Each branch of Sofeda manages their own expenses which can be quite stressful for all the chiefs and captains. Because we constantly need funds to keep everything running, the majority of the organization's forces are assigned to do these jobs. The hunt missions are letters ranked (E, D, C, B, A, and S) while the rest of the jobs are ranked based on the amount of difficulty stars assigned to it." Flipping the blackboard around, there were two more lines of writing.

**Explore- Trek through unknown territory and record all experiences**

**Destroy- Hunt for and eliminate _Dark Shards_**

Haless cleared his throat, giving us a clue that we were going to be here for a while. Hiding my growing sense of boredom, I sighed and sat down to rest my legs just as Haless began to speak. "Mystery dungeons are unique natural occurrences that causes no harm to the land and the inhabitants living there. These places also provides us with all sorts of work since pokemon tend to get lost or attacked while outlaws use these places to hide themselves in. Whenever a new mystery dungeon is discovered, an explore mission is created by the commander and he decides on who gets to go. Dark shards however break the laws of nature by artificially creating mystery dungeons. These places start to sap the planet's life force to grow and power the crystal up which causes natural disasters around the area. On top of that, the pokemon who have been exposed to the shard for too long all start to go berserk, attacking anybody recklessly who come within their sights. Sofeda was created to go out and shatter these shards, which is why destroy missions have the highest priority out of all the jobs." Finished with the explanation, the Dragonite looked around the room and scratched his face. "You know, since the cleaning of this place yesterday went exceptionally well, it's safe for me to announce that you will all be living in this base from now on."

A horrifying "WHAT," erupted from Nyami that shocked the dullness out of all of us. "Are you serious?!," she asked shaking that fluffy tail of hers, causing Haless to chuckle to himself.

"Oh, but I am serious, In fact, as of today this group is officially considered its own branch with Winta acting as captain. To celebrate, I got some help from the other chiefs and captains and together we pooled together 25000 poke for the group to act as starting funds. With the monthly bill costing about 5000 poke, it's not a whole lot of money so use it wisely because missing just one deadline will result in automatic termination of the team and expulsion of all of its members." Having said that, Haless wished us the best and returned to his duties. With him gone, the room fell into an awkward silence as we all felt the gravity of his words. The first one of us to speak up was Jorge.

"Hey, cheer up everybody. We can make this work somehow." Following up on what the Spheal said, I stood up to address the team.

"Let's start off by introducing ourselves," I said clasping my paws. Since I can't reveal that I was a human without sounding like a complete lunatic, I decided to go with the amnesia escuse. "I'll start it off by saying that my full name is Wintaki Dormer. I... can't really remember most of my past since I almost drowned in a lake nearby Genka Forest."

Liru butted in. "So that's why you were all out of it after I rescued you."

I nodded and continued telling the others about my achievements so far. After five minutes, I finished and let Liru introduce herself.

"I'm Liru and Winta here's my mom!" I jumped up and clamped her mouth shut as gasps filled the room.

"N-no! It's not like that!" I blushed. Thinking under pressure, I quickly made something up on the spot. "I simply stumbled across Liru when she was still just an egg. Her real parents... well they got captured by these humans and left the egg abandoned. I did the right thing and decided to care for it until she hatched."

"And she did a good job raising me too!" she added with a smile that slowly diminished into a frown. "But then... about five years ago some humans came and tore us apart. While Winta was out foraging for food, they came out of nowhere and took me away. All I could remember as they carried me off in that bag was the smell of smoke. They had me for about a year, forcing me to fight other pokemon in exchange for food. Then when they all just disappeared all of as sudden, it was Truce who took me in and raised me."Nyami wiped her eye with her right paw and moved in close to hug Liru and apologized for what had happened in the mess hall. With the hostilities between these two buried, the eevee stepped up to take her turn.

"I'm Nyami and this is now my fourth relocation in my three years of working in this organization. I started off in the healing division, was moved into the recon division, and finally placed in the attack division. Known for basically being a jack of all trades and a master of none by the time I entered the attack division, I got picked on constantly by my peers and almost decided to quit. But now that this place is going to be my permanent position, I'll try my hardest to make sure that we succeed."

Jorge bounced up and down. "Yea, that's the spirit. Okay, My name is Jorge and I worked in the defense division. My reason for choosing that station is that I hated... being weak..." His eyes darkened and a tinge of fear could be seen in those orbs. "...The helplessness of not being able to do anything... watching as those close to you are taken... and running away knowing you abandoned them... I just want to... protect them..." The darkness faded from his eyes as he looked at our scared faces.

"Do you want to talk about it? Mishren asked him, but he shook his head (body?) and left it at that. The flaaffy patted Jorge on the head and began his introduction. "I'm Mishren and I was a well known fighter in the special attack division. I built up a reputation for being ruthless to newbies after... well the situation that I promised Ritch not to talk about. After my fight with Winta, I had a lot of time to think while I was laying in bed and because of that I've grown to accept you. So, no hard feelings?" He stuck out his paw and looked away. Smiling, I took it and we shook. The entire group looked at Ritch, who was still shocked at what Haless had said just before he left. Prodding the Chikorita in the back with his paws, Mishren sighed. "This is my friend, Ritch," he started. "Ritch is one of the best healers in his division and actually took care of all my injuries. If it wasn't for him and Chief Olein's abilities, I would probably still be out of commission for at least another week or two. He used to be such a nice guy, but I think that it was all the praise that he got from his peers that turned him into an arrogant punk."

Hearing that last sentence snapped Ritch out of his daze. "Hey speak for yourself, jerk" he said playfully head butting the sheep. "I guess I have no choice now since the state of our jobs are on the line. Just like Mishren said, I'm a very good healer. However, if you decide to bring me into the field, then you should know that my endurance isn't really high."

"No worries," Liru laughed. "If you need protection, then we'll be happy to provide it if you ask nicely." Finally done with introductions, we all decided to head over to the job office to choose a mission. Run by an overly friendly goodra named Symie and her legion of wingulls and pelippers, the office is kept tidy and organized. When you first walk in, you'll find four large notice boards adorning the left and right sides of the walls while in front of you is a row of teller windows. The place also serves as a post office and you must check daily to see if you had mail. This was the first thing that most of the team did, so I went and browsed through the job posters. The first job I saw immediately brought up red flags.

**Client: Lilly the shinx**

**Rank &amp; Type: (7 star Rescue) (B grade/Hunt)**

**Details: My friend Solba the litleo had been attacked by a group of thugs. After they knocked him out, they kidnapped him and ran off. I did my best to follow them but turned back when they went into the mystery dungeon called Wanti Bay. Please save him!**

**Reward(s):?**

I frantically tore the job poster off the wall and hustled over towards my team. "Hey Liru," I shouted. She was talking with a wingull when she turned around to face me. In her paws was a medium sized package that had a tag with my name hanging from it.

"What's with the yelling?" she said with a grin revealing her excitement. The rest of the team had regrouped by now, curious about the objects that we held in our paws.

"I want us to start with this job," I said holding the paper out for them to read. Liru was the first to react.

"Lilly... She was the one Truce and I rescued from Genko Forest, right?" I nodded only to be met with a high pitched whistle from Mishren.

"Are you serious?" he asked, wide eyed at the mission's difficulty. Ritch gave me a disappointed stare and it really pissed me off.

"We can't do this," The grass type began. "Our team isn't ready to take on a mission this difficult. Not only are the chances of getting wiped out pretty high, but even if we do somehow manage to complete it, the amount of injuries that we'll receive would also be plentiful." Jorge seemed to nod in agreement after listening to Ritch's thoughts. I also thought that his argument was pretty solid, but something in my mind urged me to charge forward and fight.

"I want us to do this job because I believe in our combined skills and abilities. Remember, this team is unique in terms of our composition and because of that, we have a wider range of tactics that we can use. Injuries will occur no matter the mission we decide to take on and it's your job to keep us healthy enough to stay in the fight."

Growling, Ritch grabbed me by my shoulder. "I know how to do my job, but can you do yours? You're the leader. You're suppose to make decisions that positively affects the team. Why do you want to risk out health by charging into such a dangerous mission?" I grabbed his paw off my shoulder and pushed him back. I couldn't hold myself back anymore and told him everything that's on my mind.

"What's your problem? From the day that we first met all that you've ever given me is negativity. I tolerated and respected your opinions at first until I realized that you basically have no trust in my leadership. In fact, I only see you give this sort of treatment towards the girls on this team." Upon saying that, my eyes opened up in realization.

"Now that I think about it," Jorge said rubbing his chin, "Ritch does tend to act more friendly around guys and anytime a girl rolls by to ask him something, I could sense a tiny bit of resentment in the tone of his voice."

Ritch's face began to heat up as he tried to bring the discussion back on topic. "Don't change the subject and answer my question. Why do you want us to do this specific job so much."

Calming down, I looked at Ritch's embarrassed face and replied. "The victim's the prince and he's one of my friends. I met him in Genko Forest and together we took out Rydro the Tauros before Truce and Liru came and found us. I owe him a lot for giving me that first chance to prove myself worthy to join Sofeda and now I want you to give me a chance to prove myself worthy as a leader." The argument soon died down and the atmosphere of the job office returned to normal. It was mostly quiet, that is until a loud ripping of a box made all of our heads turn towards the source.

"L-Liru!" I stammered. "Don't go opening my package without my permission." The deed done Liru stuck her tongue out and looked inside. The entire team looked as well to find a pouch filled with the money Haless raised for us and six metal cases. We each took a case and opened them up to find a polished badge. Crafted into the shape of a shield with a sword sticking out from the top of it, the front of the shield had an outline of a brain etched into it. A shiny colorless jewel fit snugly inside the brain to prove that it was an official piece of authority. The mood immediately began to lighten up since the others all had their old badges taken away by their previous chiefs last night. Just the simple action of holding these new badges in their paws seemed to fill them up with confidence. Smiling at this thought, I went back into the package to retrieve the money only to find a letter that had previously been hidden underneath all of the cases. Picking it up, it read,

_Salutations Winta,_

_ Today marks the (official) start of the Unification Project! Success is still a far ways away but I know that you and your team will be able to overcome all obstacles to get to it. The badges that your team now possesses used to belong to me and my teammates back when the organization was still united over seventy years ago. In fact, the first ones to ever use them was the founder of Sofeda and his five closest friends. When Sofeda broke apart into the three factions, these badges lost most of their power and the color of the gems faded into what you see today. Despite this, please treat and treasure these relics with care. _

_ Aging along and watching the organization as it strays away from its roots, I find myself longing for the days of old. I remember looking up and admiring all sorts of heroes back when I was still a dratini lad. There was always something in their unwavering eyes that made you feel safe and at ease. When I first saw you staring at me from across the lobby, I was reminded of those feelings and knew that you were destined for great things. Like the founder and the other heroes of the old Sofeda, pave yourselves a path filled with hardships and camaraderie so that you too can pass on your legacy to future generations._

_Sincerely,_

_Your Friend Haless_

I folded Haless's letter and placed it inside my badge case, keeping his words in mind. "We should go and clear our heads by shopping for supplies," I said showing them the bag of cash. The others agreed and together we traveled to the neighboring city of Novamira, the place ruled by the missing prince's father. The journey took about an hour and when we reached the city, I was surprised when I saw the place. It reminded me of human city if you just replaced all the people with pokemon instead.

"Where should we go first?" Jorge asked as he rolled around anxiously. I thought for a minute before answering.

"Do any of you know of any places that sells equipment or accessories?" I asked back. Ears perking up, Nyami could hardly contain her excitement.

"Ooh! I know the best place to get accessories! What kind of stuff do you have in mind?" she asked without hesitation.

"Well, we're going to need packs or something to carry stuff in, right?" I said smiling.

Leading us to a store called Silk&amp;Needle, we were greeted by a Caterpie and Beedrill who ran the place.

"Hi Selk! Hi Nida," Nyami said with a cheerful smile.

"Welcome back Nyami," the Beedrill buzzed. "I see that you've brought some friends along with you. How's our favorite customer doing today?"

"I'm fine Nida, thanks for asking," Nyami replied. "Say Selk, do you happen to have any backpacks for sale? My Charmander friend here is interested in buying some for our team." The Caterpie crawled over and examined me carefully.

"We don't have a supply of backpacks ready for sale since there isn't a demand for them at the moment. However, since business is slow today, we'll be happy to make them for you right now for only 500 poke a piece."

"Sounds good," I said, paying the caterpie and thanking him for the service. The beedrill flew into the back room as Selk counted the money.

"Head on over to where Nida went so that she could get your measurements," he said crawling away. Doing what we were told to do, the team walked in to find Nida looking at shelves filled with various colors of silk. Taking hold of a bundle of green silk, she flew towards me and examined my body. Before I could even blink, she had already begun working. Knitting quickly with amazing skill and precision, the Beedrill's creation started to take shape upon my back. Entranced by the speed and sound of her drill-like arms, I didn't even realize the time fly by.

"...and with the finishing touches... it's done!" Nida said crossing her arms. I immediately took it off to examine it closer. Not only was it masterfully crafted, but there were even buttons and pockets sewn on as well.

"The material was made by Selk to be resistant to the elements so you don't have to be afraid of igniting it with the flame on your tail" Nida said reassuringly. Curious, I placed the thing above my tail and found that it didn't catch on fire. Smiling at my actions, Nida went back to work. Overall it took her about an hour to complete our order. Thanking Selk and Nida for the final time, we went off to visit other stores.

"Now all we need is some food and medicine," I said cheerfully. "Anybody want to recommend a good place to buy from?"

"I know two places," Mishren replied. "First one is a berry field and farm on the outskirts of town. Managed by a Vespiquen and worked on by her Combee children, the fruit produced by them are some of the best in the land. The second place is a general store run by a Kecleon. Great place to go to if you want to find items that are the same quality as specialty stores but cheaper."

"As for medicine," interrupted Ritch, "I can go and buy some from Toxicroak, the best medicine-mon in the city and also my healing teacher. For the mission at hand I'll go and get six reviver seeds, six oran pills, and some bandages. All of this together costs exactly 7000 poke."

"Splitting up doesn't sound like a bad idea," Nyami said. I nodded in agreement.

"Alright we'll break into two groups," I announced. "The first group going to the medicine-mon will be Ritch, Liru, and Nyami. Now before you start to protest, listen to my reasoning. Since Liru and Nyami are quick on their feet, they'll be on our scouting team while the rest of us will be on the main force. When they're out scouting, they might find some medical materials growing about. However, if they don't have that kind of knowledge beforehand, then they'll most likely just leave it behind. To prevent this sort of scenario from happening, I want you and the medicine-mon to show and teach them about these things. The rest of us are going to go and check out Kecleon's shop. After both groups have finished, we'll meet up at the berry field to finish shopping for supplies. Does everyone agree with this plan?" When everyone gave some sort of approval, I handed 10000 poke to Ritch and split our party.

Forced to be with the girls, Ritch sighed out loud as he watched his best friend walk away with that demon of a Charmander.

"Oh come on," Nyami complained. "It's only been like ten seconds and you're already acting mopey. If you don't like our company, then let's just go collect the stuff and be done with it."

Liru stepped in between the two. "Now hold up," she whispered to the frustrated Eevee. "I know how you feel but we've got to sort this out." Turning towards the Chikorita, Liru looked at him with soft eyes. "Ritch, you're a part of this team now and whatever problems that you've got becomes the entire team's problem. Just tell us about your situation so that we can help you."

Ritch backed away and shook his head. "Just leave me and my problems alone. It isn't affecting anyone else but me, so..."

"What do you mean it's not affecting anybody?" Liru growled. The gentleness of her eyes sharpened into a fierce glare. "Nyami and I are on edge because we're worried about you while Winta, someone who doesn't get mad often, burned hotter than usual today because of the way you acted. But the pokemon that's most affected is your own best friend. Whenever he looks at you, there's sadness lingering upon his face that just stays there like emotional battle scars. So don't you go and tell me that your problems aren't affecting anybody because if you do, then you're just a blind and ignorant fool."

Backed into a corner the chikorita was on the verge of tears. "No... I'm hurting Mishren?" he sniffled.

"Emotional damage is just as serious as physical damage," she said crossing her arms. "If you aren't alright in the head then you can't perform at your best. Remember when you blamed Winta's actions for getting your buddy injured? There was no way that Mishren could have lost to Winta in that fight unless he had some kind of handicap. We now know what that handicap was and whose fault it was for giving it to him."

Ritch's legs failed him and he slumped to the ground with a look of disbelief. "All these years and I didn't even notice yet it only took you a couple of days to see. Where did you learn all of this from?"

The totodile flashed a smile. "Who else but Winta? Even though she didn't teach me directly, you can still learn a lot just by watching your heroes. I've learned a bunch from her when I was still a hatchling... and now I can finally start learning from her again after all these years." Burying his face into the ground, Ritch thought about everything that Liru had said.

"F-fine," he mumbled. "I'll take a risk and trust in you two to help me move forward." Standing up, he stared at Liru with hopeful eyes. "But we still have a task to accomplish. Let's go and I can tell you as we walk."

_When I first joined Sofeda, I was originally placed in the special attack squad. There were mixed feelings swirling around my head when I showed up on the first day. I was happy that I had finally managed to get in a squad this time around, but the newbie beating tradition that this division was known for terrified me. After getting myself mentally prepared for what was to come, I made my way slowly to the Offensive Superiority building. It was here that I met Mishren the Mareep for the first time and he was chatting it up with Chief Plena. The confidence in his voice was infectious and my worries seemed to melt away when I was with him. Plena also seemed like a nice guy as well and he gave us a grand tour of the place. By the end of the day, I had completely forgotten about the beating until a group of pokemon came and carried us away. We struggled with our captors for awhile until they threw us into an open area. Standing in the middle was a Magmortar who had surrounded the area behind him with flames. Considered to be one of the best in the squad, he gave us one look and roared with laughter. _

_"The both of you look pathetically weak! It won't be fun for me if I fought you one at a time, so both of you come and attack me with all you've got!" I hesitated out of caution but Mishren didn't give a second thought and shot off a thundershock. It connected but the Magmortar roared out in amusement. "I thought I said to attack together! That felt like a soothing massage to me!" Mishren growled in anger and got ready to charge in but I held him back since I figured out that it was a trap. Keeping our heads cool, we kept our distance and observed our opponent as he kept trying to provoke us with words and attacks that were easy to avoid. Eventually I discovered his weak spot and told Mishren about my plan to exploit it. Together we charged forward, barely managing to evade flamethrowers twice our size. The air became intense for a grass type like me but I pushed myself to keep on going. Jumping into the air to avoid another flamethrower became a mistake as an ember attack made a direct hit against my body. Before I fainted, I caught a glimpse of the Magmortar's smug grin turning sour as Mishren smote him from behind. Mishren said that he got knocked out after making that attack and it took all the pokemon there to stop the Magmortar from going on a killing rampage. From that point on we worked our hardest by competing multiple jobs for our division and climbed the ranks as partners. _

_Soon we became well respected by our teammates and the chief decided to make us mentors. That decision was the start of my problems. I'm not gonna mention her name, but our first and only student was a Snover who had been a big fan of ours after we rescued her. When you get used to the hail that always seems to follow her around inside the mystery dungeons, you'll see that see had the potential to become one of the best. However, her big mouth soon drew unwanted attention in the form of a mass of followers that always seems to congregate around her at the base. She was like a role model for all those idiots who wished that they could have been assigned to us and they would get us trouble on a daily basis. Then one day that Snover, who had become blinded by her inflated ego, became way too overconfident in her abilities. We were tasked to bring down an A-ranked outlaw and managed to trap him in an open clearing somehow. Mishren sensed danger in the area and warned us but she ignored everything and charged in directly, triggering the monster house that the thug lured us to. Her reckless behavior that day dealt massive injuries to the team and unfortunately she passed away. The trauma of seeing your student's life getting snuffed out right before your eyes was horrible enough to almost make me quit. When the news broke out that she had died under our watch, the trouble blew up exponentially. All those followers that she amassed in her short two months of glory banded together and started a hate campaign to smear Sofeda's name. When Mishren and I were released after getting healing treatment for two weeks, we found ourselves at war with an enemy that can't be confronted with violence. Job offerings began to dry up in our branch and our members were constantly being attacked when they tried stepping out to gather supplies. For some unexplained reason, all the guys would go and physically harass Mishren while I got bullied by the females. When I received the transfer over to the healing division, that's when I realized how stupid the situation had become. We basically had to endure half a year of misery and hardships just because some cocky brat who didn't know when to shut up decided to throw her life away for fame. Things slowly died down when those fanatics learned of my transfer. I guess they were tired of all the fighting and were satisfied with the outcome. Mishren continued to climb the ranks while I sat back at base. Chief Olein did her research and found out that my dad was a Slowking. That meant that I was able to use a move called heal pulse when I was little, but had forgotten how to use it now. At first I was defensive about her approaching me but her motherly attitude tore down that barrier in an instant. It took awhile but I was able to relearn that move under her encouragement and taught how to masterfully control its power. After learning that she forced me to go learn from the medicine-mon._

As he said this, the trio found themselves in front of the medicine-mon's home. Ritch gave a couple knocks before opening the door and motioning for the other two to follow. The scent of various herbs lingered in the air, which smelt more refreshing than the city air outside. Walking to an open window facing the backyard, they saw the Toxicroak tending to a well kept garden.

"Hey old man! I'm here to do some business with you!" Ritch shouted out. Startled, the Toxicroak turned and smiled.

"Well I'll be Mankey's uncle. Is that you, Ritch? It's been way too long since I last saw my favorite student. Come here so I can get a good look at how much you've grown." The chikorita nodded and approached the toxicroak. "Oh my," the toxicroak whispered as the chikorita got close. "Do my eyes deceive me or do I see two young lasses standing by my doorway? Gotten over your fear now, eh?"

"It ain't like that old man," Ritch coughed. "They're my teammates and we're here to buy some items for a difficult mission." He told the medicine-mon what he needed and motioned for Liru and Nyami to come over. "Aside from the ingredients, the team leader also wanted these two to learn a bit about medicinal herbs. Could you help me teach them?"

The Toxicroak rubbed his chin. "Hmmm, it depends on what you need to learn. I can give a few pointers for free on how to search for and gather them but some of the more complicated stuff will require enrollment fees."

"We'll just take the pointers for now," Nyami said.

"But we might come back to learn more about," Liru added. After paying for the supplies, they got to learn about a couple of the common berries growing throughout the land and their effects. When if was time for them to leave, they thanked the Toxicroak for his time.

"No problem, youngsters. Spreading my knowledge to the next generation pleases my aching bones. Don't hesitate to come back if you want to learn more, alright?" Waving goodbye, they began their journey to meet with the others at the farm. As they walked, Liru noticed that Ritch seemed happier.

"That's what I like to see," she giggled. Ritched stopped, confused at her words.

"Huh? What do you like to see?" he asked. Liru poked at him.

"This. The real you who's casually strolling side by side with two girls with a smile on his face." Realizing the situation, he coughed as his face started to redden.

"Oh. Well... I mean..." he struggled to find the right words.

"I guess talking about it really did help," Nyami smiled. "Come on, let's see if we can beat the other team and get there first." With that she took off with Liru trailing right behind. Still thinking about what just happened, Ritch gave a quiet laugh and chased after his teammates.

"Hey Winta. do you really think that it's a good idea to leave Ritch with those two?" Mishren asked as we walked away from the seething Chikorita.

"No need to worry," I replied. "Liru and Nyami both have strong personalities so I'm pretty sure that they'll be able to get Ritch to come out of his shell. I'm guessing that what ever happened to him happened to you too?"

The Flaaffy nodded. "Yep, but I promised Ritch that I wouldn't talk about it anymore. Could we change the subject?"

"But we're already here," Jorge chimed in as he pointed a flipper at a building. A bell rang as we opened the door to the shop.

"Welcome to our shop!" a pair of voices cried out enthusiastically. Standing in front of us was a Minun while a Plusle waved at us from the counter. Mishren scratched his head.

"Your shop?" he wondered, "Did something happen the previous owner?"

"Are you referring to Mr. Kecleon?" the Minun asked.

"Because something did happen," the Plusle piped in. "It wasn't anything bad though. You see, Mr. Kecleon received a letter from his brother and immediately packed up almost everything. As his apprentices, he gave us the keys to the shop and told us to do our best before leaving."

"Any idea on where he went off to?" I asked out of concern. Both of them shook their heads.

"He didn't say but I'm pretty sure he went to go see his brother," the Minun said.

"They used to be famous traveling merchants," Jorge added in. "But they broke apart when one of their dealings went sour. Hopefully they put all that nasty business behind them and reconciled with one another. Anyways lets do what we came here to do and shop."

"Oh, let us introduce ourselves before we get down to business," the Plusle grinned. With a graceful leap off the counter she made a perfect landing next to the minun. "My name's Posie," she beamed.

"And I'm Negi," bowed the Minun.

"Welcome to our shop!" they cried out in unison. The three of us clapped at their performance before browsing their wares. Most of the perishable items were located near the counter and the deals on some of them were quite tempting. Wandering around, I soon spotted an area that had me curious.

"What is this stuff?" I asked Negi who was organizing a shelf close by. Walking over, he saw me pointing at an assortment of objects that seemed to be gathering dust.

"Ah, these are valuable treasures that hold within them hidden powers," he explained. "But getting them to work can be a bit tricky. Some items activate when in the possession of a pokemon with a specific type. This defend globe, which protects the owner from flying type moves, only works when in the possession of a bug type pokemon. Other objects are more species related..."

"Like this safe scarf," Jorge interrupted. Sensing a hint of anger hidden within the tone of his voice, we turned to find the Spheal gripping a golden piece of cloth.

"...Yes, exactly like that safe scarf," Negi continued cautiously. "That object will only affect Spheals, Sealeos, and Walreins by making them faster whenever it hails. But since it looks like you already that, I'd like to know if you're interested in buying it?" Jorge puffed up in offense. "

I'm more interested in how the store got a hold of it in the first place," he said gritting his teeth. "Because this used to belong to my mother and I know that she would never willingly pawn off such a memorable treasure." Hearing the commotion, Mishren and Posie walked over to find out what all the ruckus was about. Negi walked over to the Plusle and whispered something into her ears. Staring at Jorge and the item in his hand, Posie shrugged and shook her head.

"Um, sorry. I have no idea when Mr. Kecleon got a hold of that safe scarf," she said to Jorge. "I'd like to give it back but that's just bad business for us. A 50% discount is the best thing that I can... are you alright?" Large tears had started to roll down Jorge's face while his body began to tremble. Seeing him like this made my body move on its own as I ran up and hugged him tenderly. Realizing what I was doing, I quickly snapped back to normal and withdrew from his personal space.

"No need to cry," I coughed in embarrassment. "We can just buy it from them. I'm sure that we could afford it."

Jorge wiped his eyes and shook his body. "It's not that," he sniffled. "I just... thought that I found a lead as to where my family went." Mishren rubbed the side of his head, unsure of his thoughts for a moment before he opened his mouth to speak.

"Um... I hate to ask this but did they abandon you?"

"What!? No of course not," Jorge glared through watery eyes. "They were taken away... by humans..." Hearing that last word made my heart beat faster.

"Humans?" I said in confusion. "I was told that they all disappeared a couple of years ago. When did this incident happen?" Rubbing his eyes, Jorge sniffled for a bit. "It was about nine years ago..."

_The earliest memories of my existence were of heavy snowfall blanketing the ground in a thick layer of powdered flakes. Bleak and gloomy at first, it wasn't until I saw those rare rays of sunlight breaking through the wall of clouds and illuminating the falling flakes, turning them into glittering gems of color the likes I've never seen before. I watched them fall gracefully onto my mother who had noticed the flakes as well. The golden scarf around her neck began to glow brightly, turning the snow on ground into an illuminated stage. She smiled and called me over, the light reflecting off of her gentle blue eyes like a mirror made of ice. I rolled over as quickly as I could but accidentally bumped into and startled her. Instead of scolding me she simply rubbed the top of my head with her flipper and kissed it. _

_"Jorge," she whispered while we were enveloped in the light, "Do you like these colors?" I looked up towards the falling flakes and nodded. Seeing this, she leaned in close and nuzzled me. "Even though we live in a land of whites and grays, just know that there's a larger world of color out there to explore, my little one." After saying that the lights began to fade away._

_ A couple of months had passed after that day had occurred. The harsh season of freezing weather had lightened up and the air felt much warmer. It was that time of the year where healthy males would challenge my father for his spot as tribe's chief. Now my dad was a tough pokemon who was incredibly strong for his age. Working constantly throughout the day to protect the herd meant that our interactions with one another were severely limited. Whenever we did talk, he would always scare me with his commanding tone and strict personally. Despite that, I don't hate him or anything. Everything he did was for his family and I respect him greatly for that. A large crowd of sealeo and walreins had gathered around the makeshift arena my dad had chosen ahead of time. He faced the crowd with his chest puffed up with pride to symbolize his power. Behind him was the wall of a cliff, to ensure everybody that he would not run away from any fights. Since she was worried about my safety, I watched with my mother from atop of a hill. We were far away from everybody else but I could still see my father as he faced his first opponent. My mother gasped just as we realized who he was fighting against. It was my older brother. Remember when I said that my father scared me? Well, my brother is ten times worse. Being the eldest son, he had to endure living in my father's shadow and the expectations that was forced upon him over the years had turned him into an apathetic monster. As the youngest, he found me to be an easy target for all of his aggressions. The way I see it, my dad fought to protect his homeland while my brother sought to destroy it. Charging forward with a body slam, he made the first move against our dad and struck a direct blow against his chest. Dad's pride deflated a little, but he stood unflinching and immediately countered with an ice fang onto my bro's back. Face scrunching out in pain, he responded by sinking his own tusks into dad's back. The clashing of opposites intensified as they wrestled with one another. The match was too even to tell and the crowd was split on who to cheer for. But none of us would ever know the outcome. It was at the battle's climax that nets rained down on the crown. A large portion of the herd was trapped instantly while those who were free began to run away. That's when I saw the humans descending down the cliff side. My mother placed her flipper atop of my head. She was staring at the chaos unfolding at the arena with a calm yet fierce glint in her eyes. _

_"Jorge," she quietly said. "Be a good boy and roll on home. Mommy has to go help protect the herd with your father from the humans." I was about to complain to her until I saw a huge bolt of electricity shoot up into the sky. "GO NOW!" she screamed before taking off towards the enemy. With tears in my eyes, I bit my lip and rolled with all I got until I reached our cave. Alone and frightened, I hid myself in the deepest and darkest section of the cave. The waiting nearly drove me insane as minutes turned into hours. Sleep eventually took over and a day passed with no word from the outside. With nothing but the sound of the wind echoing off the walls to keep me company, I eventually left my hiding spot to go check the situation._

_ Gone. Everybody was just gone and I was left alone in this sea of disturbed snow. I began calling out names, just hoping to get an answer from anybody. Howling wind and thicker snowfall was the only response I got and it just buried the remains of the ambush. I went back home and sheltered there for a whole week, constantly going out to forage for some berries and calling out for my family to keep myself occupied. It was on the ninth day that a miracle happened. It was blizzard conditions when I stupidly went out to do my usual routines. Visibility was severely limited that day, but as I called out I could faintly see a splotch of red approaching me. Freaking out on the inside, I began to rush back home and hoped that it didn't follow. Munching on an aspear berry I had stored the day before, I was surprised to see another pokemon staring at me from the entrance of the cave. _

_"Nice place you have here kid," he said with a toothy grin. _

_"W-what do you want from me?" I managed to spit our fearfully. With those long sharp claws of his glinting dangerously in the dark I was sure that this pokemon was going to kill me. But he just sat down and took something out from a pouch hanging from his side. _

_"What's a brat like you doing all alone in a place like this?" He asked while twirling the object around in his claws. "Shouldn't you be at home with your family?" Hearing this I broke apart emotionally and the zangoose stood up with a concerned look on his face. I explained everything to him and he just listened in silence. When I finished, we both just sat in the darkness and listened to the weather outside calm itself down. "Hey kid," he asked a couple of minutes later. "You said your name was Jorge, right?" I nodded. The zangoose stuck a claw towards me and smiled. _

_"My name's Truce. Say, would you want to come with me? I work for an organization that helps pokemon in need of our services and you've got potential to be one of the best..."_

"After using his badge to teleport us to Sofeda," Jorge sniffled, "he introduced me to the chief of special defence, which was a Probopass named Pakojo. Pakojo took me and raised me like his own son. I've learned a lot from him, but I can't help but think back to all that I've lost that one fateful day. Truce told me that he took a job request that told him where to find me and I have always wondered who could have posted it. Seeing my mom's scarf in your shop made me realize that she must have gone through this area at some point." Almost everybody was in tears after Jorge finished recounting his past. All of us except Mishren bunched together around the poor Spheal and gave him a group hug. At the end of our visit to the little shop, Posie dropped the price of the safe scarf down to 2000 poke. After purchasing it, the three of us waved goodbye to our new friends and began to head to the farm to regroup with the rest of the team.

The sounds of an argument could be heard echoing loudly as the scent of smoke drifted through the hot, dry air. We picked up our pace and noticed scorch marked trees and unnatural puddles of water leading up to the entrance of the farm. When we arrived, I was surprised to see Liru there exchanging moves and insults with another pokemon so I shouted to her.

"What's going on, Liru?" Turning around, the Totodile looked at me with rage burning in her eyes.

"This jerk and his goons are trying to take over the farm!" she growled, pointing towards her oppenent. Standing in front of the entrance gate was a Charmeleon in a fighting stance. He had a couple of old battle scars scattered around his body, but the most noticeable was the large one that ran from his chest down towards his belly. Upon noticing the appearance of enemy reinforcements he shot out a cloud of thick, black smoke into our direction. Liru was taken by surprised and got completely enveloped by the cloud. Jorge blew out a gust of cool air to push the smoke off of her but she had already breathed some of it in and was coughing uncontrollably. By the time the smoke had cleared, the Charmeleon had used the opportunity to escape into the farm.

"Where's Nyami and Ritch?" Mishren asked as he looked around. Still coughing, Liru pointed over to a bush that was close to a heavily damaged tree. The Flaafy and I ran over to find Ritch working feverishly on Nyami, who had a severe burn mark on her side. Shocked and worried about the poor Eevee, I asked Ritch about what had happened. He gave me an angry look at first but then moved his eyes back down to our injured comrade with a tinge of guilt.

"After getting the supplies from the medicine-mon, the three of us decided to have a race to the farm," Ritch grumbled. "Underestimating their speed, I watched as they got farther and farther away from me until they disappeared from my sight. It was then that I decided to use all of the stamina that I had to catch up to them. I ran and ran, closing my eyes as the wind hit my face and letting my guard down just to concentrate on running. I had no idea about what was happening when I caught up to them until I heard Liru shouting my name. Opening my eyes, I was greeted by the sight of a large ball of fire hurling towards me. Unable to react, I gritted my teeth and braced for impact. A sharp pain from my left surprised me as I flew out of the fireball's path and into a tree. After recovering from the blow to my side, I looked back to see what had hit me only to find Nyami laying on the ground. Seeing her like that reminded me of my failures as a teacher and I just froze. Liru snapped me out of it by roaring and charging angrily at the enemy. Taking the chance that Liru provided, I pushed the problems of my past aside and ran to save Nyami." Ritch paused, closed his eyes, and concentrated to cast an aura of healing around the unconscious eevee. "The first thing I did was feed her one of the reviver seeds we bought to stabilize her condition," he panted. "I can use heal pulse a couple of more times but we have to treat this burn in order for my healing to work," he panted. Liru and Jorge had joined up with the rest of us, one still angry while the other was tearing up.

"Shouldn't we use our badge to call for an emergency rescue?" Jorge asked. I sighed and placed a paw on Jorge's head.

"That would be the smartest thing to do in our situation," I said with a frown. "However, if we do that then our team's reputation would be destroyed before it even had a chance to grow. We'd be known as the team that failed on the outskirts of town and might even be forced to disband."

"Which is why we're not gonna call for rescue," Ritch growled. "In order for me to cure Nyami's burn, I'm gonna need a couple of rawst berries. The good news is that there should be some inside the farm. The bad news is that the farm is currently being attacked."

"So that means we have to go in there and fight the bandits in order to save Nyami and the farm?" Liru said as she cracked her paws and flashed her fangs. I smiled at her eagerness and turned to address the rest of the team.

"Alright, here's the plan. Mishren, Liru, and I will go into the farm to find those rawst berries while Jorge and Ritch will stay behind and protect Nyami. Now those berries are our number one priority so we have to focus on finding them first. As soon as we get some and treat Nyami's burn, we'll go in as a team and take down all of those thugs. Sounds good?" Ritch handed me three blue gumball sized pills.

"Use these to heal up if any of you get hurt," he told me. I nodded and handed them out to Liru and Mishren before putting my pill into the right side pocket of my backpack. With Liru on my right and Mishren on my left, the three of us set off into the farm.

"Something's wrong," Mishren stated before stopping us in our tracks. Liru and I had noticed it as well after taking a look around.

"It feels like we're walking in a mystery dungeon," I replied.

"An artificial one to be exact," Liru added. Remembering Haless' lesson on mission types, I realized that this mission just got more a bit more complicated.

"Great... Now we have to find and destroy the crystal causing this," Mishren growled. "We also have to hunt down the pokemon responsible and capture them alive for interrogation." A close by explosion ripped through the silence of the farm. The three of us ducked our heads and turned to look at the rising smoke.

"We got to go," Liru said urgently. "The enemy will start to swarm this area to find the cause of that explosion and we definitely don't want to be here when they arrive." Rushing away from the blast zone, we unexpectedly encountered a trio of Houndour. They were as shocked as us at first, but then one of them began to howl. Reacting quickly, Liru shot the pup in the mouth with a blast of water while I covered the other two in a fog of smoke. Confused at the loss of visibility, the pups were too panicked to notice Mishren charging up his electric attacks. A decisive electrical shock easily knocked both of them out before the smoke had cleared. Another howl responded from the distance and we took that as a sign to pick up our pace. Once we had gone far enough away from the area, we stopped to catch our breaths.

"This isn't going to be easy," Mishren panted. Tossing a ragged scarf onto the ground, the Flaaffy pointed at it and gritted his teeth. "We're up against the Claw Biters, a vicious pack of canines who only care about themselves." Spitting into the bushes, Mishren sighed and balled up his paws. A faint buzzing was heard from where the Flaafy spat.

"Yuck..." a high pitched voice exclaimed in disgust. Crawling out from their hiding spot was a Combee covered in saliva. Realizing that they just revealed themselves, the Combee cowered in fear as they looked at the three of us. "Please don't hurt me," it pleaded.

"We're not gonna hurt you," I said calmly. Showing them my badge made them breathe out a sigh of relief. Walking over and gently picking them up, I carefully used a leaf to wipe the slime off of them.

"Are you one of the workers here?" Liru asked.

"Actually, I'm the next heir to the farm," the Combee replied while pointing with her eyes to the red dot in the middle of her forehead. "I'm the only girl amongst all the combee born here and my mother has spent most of her time teaching me about being a successful leader. Today, I was out observing my brothers work when all of a sudden we were attacked. Our mother Vespiquen ordered all of us to swarm the enemy and although we had the superior numbers, our numbers were decimated by their intense fire attacks. Fearing for my life, I hid myself in this bush until you three found me. Are you here to save my family?"

I nodded to her. "Saving the farm is on our to do list, but first we must find a rawst berry. One of my friends was badly burnt by the enemy and the only thing that can save her is that berry. Could you perhaps lead us to where those berries grow?" The Combee hesitated in answering at first out of fear but when we tried to leave, she reluctantly agreed to show us the way. The four of us traveled quickly and quietly, stopping a few times for the Combee to sense for the direction of the berry fields and to knock out a few enemy patrols. When we arrived at the berry field, we were surprised to see that the place was undisturbed. Rows of berry bushes were lined up across the entire area and my stomach growled a bit at the sight of all this fruit. "There's something odd about this," Mishren warned. However, the combee happily ignored him and flew in, triggering a trap. Enemies began to warp in around the area, all glaring at us with killing intent.

"Monster house!" Liru screamed as she pulled the Combee back. "I counted 8 houndours and a houndoom," I muttered to the others. Mishren walked forward, crackling with energy.

"Winta," he said with a hint of excitement. Shoving an arm into one of the bushes, he pulled out a berry and threw it to me. "You and Liru go on and deliver that to Ritch now, alright? Just leave these punks to me. I've got some revenge to take." When the entire pack began to howl, the air around Mishren started to become charged with electricity. "GO!" he shouted, unleashing a powerful thunderbolt towards the pack. Illuminated by the flash of light, I nodded and pushed Liru and the Combee away from the fight.

"I'm so sorry for triggering that obvious trap but is he going to be alright?" the Combee asked as we ran.

"Yep," I replied hastily. "He's the best when it comes to fighting and those guys will simply get wrecked by his electric moves." Entering a small clearing Liru and I could see the exit in the distance. But before we could start rushing towards it, a blast of fire scorched the ground ahead of us. Jumping from out of a tree was the Charmeleon who gravely injured Nyami.

"You have something that I want," he said pointing at the Combee. Confused, the frightened bug pokemon hid behind me while Liru shot out a blast of her water gun.

"You're gonna pay for what you did to my friend!" she growled after her target ducked out of the way. Shaking his head and sighing, the Charmeleon took on a fighting stance.

"If you wish to get in my way again, then I'll gladly burn you just like I did to that Eevee." Charging forward, he attempted to slash at Liru's ankles. Liru managed to avoid it however by jumping over the Charmeleon and counter attacking with a scratch to his back before following up with a bite. The scratch connected but just as she was about to bite him, he smacked the side of Liru's face with his tail. Flying away from the blow, the Totodile managed to land on her feet just in time to notice and dodge the Charmeleon's ember attack. However, she didn't expect the charmeleon to follow up with a blast of smoke and was completely enveloped by the thick black cloud.

"You've lost!" the charmeleon laughed before unleashing a burst of his flamethrower attack. When the flames and smoke had cleared, Liru was no where to be found. "Haha! She became ashes scattered by the wind!" Turning, he looked at me with a smug grin on his face. "After witnessing my power, I'm sure you'll do the smart thing and surrender that combee to me. In fact, I'll even take you along as my mate and do things to you that you'll really enjoy!" Gagging at that thought, I glared at the jerk and growled.

"Over my dead body!" I shouted before charging him. Grinning, he prepared to defend himself from my attack only to be surprised by my dragon rage attack making direct contact with his belly. Falling to a knee and coughing, his eyes glinted with seriousness.

"You pack a hell of a punch there kiddo," he spat out in anger as I jumped away from him. No longer playful, he stood up and hissed at me. After staring each other down for a minute, we both shot out our smokescreen which connected into each other in the middle of the clearing. Using the smoke as cover, the Charmeleon charged through it only to smash head first into my ember attack. Wincing, he counterattacked by blowing his flamethrower attack at me. Instead of focusing the funnel to maximize damage, he widened it so that I couldn't dodge it. My left leg got caught in the flames, but I was lucky that it didn't hurt too bad. The Charmeleon was still recovering from my embers on his head so I rushed in and scratched him two times in the chest. I almost got a third hit in but he slashed me in the jaw and caused critical damage to my maw. Panting, we both looked at each other in the eyes and saw the fire of battle burning within our pupils. He then became surprised and jumped back in full retreat.

"No... You're a monster," he said suddenly. "Monster... laying dormant within... waiting and watching..." Closing his eyes and shaking the shock away, he stared at me with a fearful look. "I have to end you... to kill the monster inside..." he said in a serious tone as he charged towards me. Vines suddenly emerged from the bushes and tangled the charmeleon as a couple of blasts of water struck his surprised form.

"Are you okay, Winta?" Ritch said as he came out from of the bush. Following behind him was a grinning Liru.

"Mission successful!" she shouted while holding a paw out in a V-shape. The charmeleon looked at her with his mouth agape.

"But I killed you! Burned you to ashes! How..." he began to say before he looked at me. "What did you do you abomination?!" I picked myself off the ground and brushed the dust off my scales.

"She simply escaped, you moron," I said coldly. "You see, our top priority was to treat our friend's wounds first and Liru accomplished that goal by rolling into the bushes right before your flamethrower landed and crawling all the way towards the exit." Realizing his mistake, the charmeleon cursed at himself a final time and fainted. Turning towards Ritch, I asked him about Nyami's condition.

"She'll be alright after a restful slumber," he beamed. After using a healing pulse on me, he looked around before asking me about Mishren. As if on cue, the bushes behind us shook and an unfamiliar yellow pokemon stood before us.

"I heard my name mentioned," he said looking at the rest of us. Realizing that Mishren had evolved from his fight, we bunched around and bombarded him with questions. Before he could answer any of them, the sound of buzzing instantly grew intense around us. A swarm of combee appeared from out of no where, but the biggest surprise was seeing Vespiquen descend gently from the sky. With the raising of her hand, the buzzing immediately stopped and all was silent except for the sound of one.

"Mommy!" our Combee guide shouted as she flew into her mother's arms. Vespiquen smiled and patted her daughter on her head before returning her attention towards us. With a sweet and gentle buzz, she bowed her head.

"I must thank you all for coming to our aid in our time of need," she said with an air of royalty. "Not only did you defeat the bandits who came to raid our farm, but you also protected my heir from harm. For your services, I must give you some kind of reward. Just name it and it shall be yours." Thinking for a little, a brilliant idea popped inside my head.

"Actually, could we ask for a favor instead?" I questioned. When Vespiquen nodded, I gave her a polite smile. "We're looking for a small crystal that's as dark as night and possesses an evil aura. Could you have your children search for it for us?" Giving a silent order, the combee dispersed and within mere minutes one of them found it. Taking it within my paw, I crushed the damned thing into dust and declared the mission a success.


End file.
